Gotta Catch em All
by Flightgirl
Summary: When an uncontrolled Chaos Control teleports Sonic and co. to the pokemon world and leaves Shadow in a weakened state, the gang must reunite and work together with the Pokemon heroes to return home. Maybe the two worlds aren't so different after all.
1. Manners and Maniacs

It was a beautiful day; the sun was shining, and a slight breeze blew peacefully over Mobius, rustling the quills in the blue hedgehog's spikes. Sonic the Hedgehog was finally enjoying a day off from protecting the planet from Eggman and Scourge and alien threats, and he was going to spend the day doing absolutely nothing at all.

He was sunbathing on the roof of Freedom HQ, leaning back with his hands behind his head and his eyes closed. He tapped his foot to the music blaring from his iPod Touch, but stopped when he felt a familiar swirling wind from above him. Sonic opened his eyes in time to see Tails, the orange two-tailed fox that had been his best friend throughout the years, land on the roof beside him.

He took one earphone out. "Hey Tails. What brings you out of your lab? Scourge isn't trying to enter our dimension again, is he?"

Tails smiled his cute little kid smile and shook his head. "Nope. I actually came because of some news from Knuckles."

Sonic sat up and turned off his iPod. "Oh?"

Tails nodded. "He and Rouge found out where the last Chaos Emerald is."

"That's great!" The blue hedgehog jumped to his feet. "Where is it?"

The fox frowned. "Shadow has it."

Shadow: the broody black and red hedgehog created by Dr. Gerald Robotnik more than 50 years ago to be the Ultimate Lifeform. Getting _anything _involving charity from him was always a chore.

"Oh…" Sonic scratched his head, trying to think of a way that he could possibly get the Chaos Emerald from Shadow without having to fight him for it on his day off. He shrugged. "I can't think of anything, so I guess I'll just have to beat him up."

Tails' eyes widened in horror. "WHAT!? You don't mean Shadow?!"

Sonic nodded.

Tails slapped his forehead. "You can't be serious! You're just going to waltz right up to Shadow the Hedgehog, throw a punch, and take the Emerald?"

"That's the plan," Sonic confirmed while fixing his glove.

"Come on, Sonic. You know how Shadow gets. You don't need to get into a fight with him. Besides, you know full well that he's extremely powerful when he has a Chaos Emerald. He could, quite frankly, destroy you."

"Oh, he won't do that," the hedgehog argued. "He loves fighting with me too much. Besides, Shadow isn't that powerful. I've beat him plenty of times. Knuckles could even take him out."

Tails blinked at him. "He almost killed Knuckles. Rouge is with him now at the infirmary, but she'll be coming back here soon."

Sonic shrugged. "Well, now I guess I have a reason to beat him up. He knows he's not allowed to hurt my friends."

Tails sighed. "Alright, fine. If that's what you're doing, go right ahead. But it's your funeral." With that, the two-tailed fox spun his tails and left the roof to go back to his and Rotor's lab.

Sonic scratched his nose and smiled, then jumped off of Freedom Fighters HQ and took off.

It was nothing for him to move his feet faster than the speed of light. It was second-nature to him, like flying was to Tails or smashing was to Amy. The ultra-high speeds that he travelled were completely natural, but there was something about moving at the speed of sound that still amazed Sonic about himself. In those times when the rest of the world seemed to stand still, he felt like he was moving faster than time itself, faster than life. Nothing could see him, nothing could feel him, and nothing could touch him.

It only took a few seconds for him to reach his destination: G.U.N Police Force. Actually, only Shadow lived there. Back when they had been on Earth, Shadow had been hired by the organization, and when they returned to their own planet, Shadow had created his own version. Though no one else wanted to join because Shadow was the leader of it, and he wasn't much of a police force.

"Hey, Shadow!" Sonic called into the array of abandoned metal buildings. "Come out here, Faker! I need to talk to you!"

Silence.

Sonic tapped his foot. "I'm _waaaiiittttiiinnn_'." His voice echoed off the metal buildings.

"Don't ever do that," a voice said from behind him.

Sonic whipped around and found himself facing a black hedgehog with red stripes and a serious attitude problem. He smiled and waved casually. "Hi, Shadow. Got a minute?"

Shadow the Hedgehog crossed his arms and glared.

"I'll take that as a yes," Sonic said. "Thing is, you have something that I need."

"The Chaos Emerald."

"Yup, that'd be it. See, the thing is, we have six of them, and you have one of them."

Shadow continued to glare silently.

"I need it."

Shadow still glared, unmoving.

Sonic avoided his eyes, which were frankly creeping him out. He sighed. "Look shadow, I don't want us to get into a fight. But you already hurt Knux, so unless you want some serious damage yourself, you'll hand over the Emerald this instant."

Shadow finally blinked once and turned around to leave. He stopped when he had taken a step. "Knuckles tried to _steal_ from me. There's a difference in asking and taking. He took. I didn't even know it was him at first." He continued on his way.

Sonic scratched his head in confusion. "Are you saying that you didn't give Knuckles the Emerald because he wouldn't say _please_?" he called after Shadow.

Shadow chuckled, but continued deeper into the group of buildings.

Sonic ran to catch up, which took less than a second. "You know I'm going to have to pummel you because of what you did to Knuckles, right?"

"You can try, Faker."

Sonic frowned. "I don't really want to fight you."

Shadow's lips showed the tiniest hint of a smile for a fraction of a second. "Nor I, you. But I will, if that's what you choose."

The blue hedgehog sighed. "I'll forget the whole thing if you just give me the Emerald."

Shadow remained silent and expressionless.

Sonic cleared his throat. "Um…Please?"

The black hedgehog reached into his spikes and tossed something red and shiny at Sonic.

"Take it. I don't need it anymore. I'll soon be as powerful without it as I am now with it, anyways."

Sonic stared at the gem in his hand. He immediately felt the power surge through him from the Chaos Emerald, and he almost felt bad for taking it from Shadow. He debated whether or not to give it back, but before he could make a decision, he heard Shadow yell, "CHAOS CONTROL!" and he was gone.

"Um…Thanks, Shadow." Sonic turned back the way he came from and took off.

He took a little longer, because he wasn't in a hurry. He allowed himself to take a couple minutes, rather than a couple seconds, to get back to Freedom HQ.

"Sonic!"

Oh, no. He knew that high-pitched, annoyingly cute voice.

A pink female hedgehog was running towards him like—well, like an animal—with arms and eyes open wide. At least she didn't have her hammer.

Sonic smiled nervously. "Hey, Amy. How's it going?"

She screeched with joy and tackled him. "Oh Sonic! I'm so glad you're back! Did you get the Emerald?"

"Right here." He held up the red Emerald.

Tails came down from the sky and landed beside Sonic and Amy. "Wow. You're in one piece. And you have the Emerald."

"You sound surprised," Sonic said as Amy hung off of him. "I told you I could do it."

Tails took the Emerald. "Not surprised," he replied. "Impressed." He smiled at Sonic. "Good job."

"Naturally." He pushed Amy off of him. "Amy, I need to breathe."

"I'll go put this with the others," Tails informed Sonic, lifting himself into the air with his tails.

"Why don't you go with Tails, Amy?" Sonic said. "I'm going to go for a run."

"Aww…" she said dejectedly. "Alright. But hurry back!"

Sonic flashed her a signature smile and took off, not really knowing where he was going or what he was going to do. What does the Hero of Mobius, whose hobbies include running and beating up on fakers and Eggman, do on his day off? The answer: run anywhere and everywhere for as long as you can.

Truth be told, Sonic didn't know what to do and running was all he could think of to pass the long day now that the last Chaos Emerald was found. It would defeat the purpose of his day off to invade Eggman's headquarters to destroy whatever evil scheme he was thinking up.

The heroic hedgehog didn't even know why he was taking a day off. It had been something Amy had insisted on, and he'd only agreed to make her stop bothering him. It had been a slow week anyways. What was one more day? The problem now was that the lack of activity was driving him crazy.

Sonic slowed to a stop and looked around at where he had ended up. He was outside of the Knothole infirmary, from which a sound like war was coming. Sonic smiled as the familiar red echidna with the crescent moon mark on his chest burst out of the doors, followed closely by insisting nurses.

"WHERE IS HE?!" Knuckles was screaming. "I'M GONNA KILL THAT BLACK HEDGEHOG!"

"Heya, Knux," Sonic said with a wave. "Feeling better?"

"I will be once I wring Shadow's smug little neck!" Knuckles replied, fuming. He stormed over to Sonic. "Have you seen him?"

"Yup. He gave me the Emerald just a little while ago. Apparently you didn't say 'please'…?"

Knuckles stared at him. "I didn't say 'please'?"

"That's what he said," the hedgehog replied with a shrug.

"Sir," a chipmunk nurse interrupted, placing a hand on Knuckles' bandaged shoulder, "you need to rest. You had quite an ordeal—"

"I'm fine!" Knuckles shouted at her. "Leave me alone!" He turned to Sonic. "Where's Rouge? Is she okay?"

"She's back at Freedom HQ. Don't worry, she's fine."

He was settling down now, taking deep breaths and letting his blood pressure return to normal.

Sonic grinned. "Come on, Chuckles. Let's get out of here."

Knuckles sighed. "Alright. I can always beat on Shadow later…"

**Meanwhile, in Robotropolis…**

"SNIVELY!" Dr. Eggman shouted. "Bring the Inhibitor Rings!"

"Yes, Uncle," the skinny, big-nosed man said from the other room. He came in carrying a small red box and presented it to Eggman.

"Thank you, Snively." He turned to the red and black hedgehog that stood in front of him and opened the box to reveal the two golden Rings sitting inside.

Shadow eyed them suspiciously. "I am not sure about this, Doctor."

Eggman laughed. "OH HO HO HO! What is not to be sure of, my boy? I invented this special type of Ring specifically for your Chaos abilities, Shadow. They can work for no one but you."

"That's what worries me. Let's face it, Doctor. You're not the most reliable man. You must have had a reason for making these, or else you would not be giving them to me."

Eggman sighed and placed the box on a table. "Okay. You caught me. I want you to be a guinea pig of sorts. I'm thinking of expanding my horizons when it comes to my inventions, and I'm experimenting with containing the power of Chaos Emeralds, without the need of the actual gems."

Shadow crossed his arms. "And what does this have to do with me?"

"You are the only known being able to control the Chaos Energy without a Chaos Emerald. Naturally, I wanted you to be the first to test my new technique."

Shadow looked to the red box with the Rings, his face expressionless. "So what are they supposed to do, exactly?"

Eggman grinned through his bow-tie moustache. "Well, they are designed to tap into the Chaos power and magnify it up to ten times, without damaging the vessel—that's you—anymore than a normal exertion of power would. That means that you no longer have to remove your Rings when releasing a great amount of the Chaos force."

"Hm."

Shadow continued to look at the Rings. It was truly a tempting offer, and if not for his previous experience with Doctor Ivo Robotnik—more commonly known now as Eggman—he would have accepted already. But there was something about the presented information…something that was missing… It just seemed suspicious.

"Why didn't you just make a fake Chaos Emerald?"

Eggman waved a hand dismissively. "Pish, posh. Been there, done that. I wanted to try something fresh."

Shadow considered, then chuckled and turned towards the exit. "Nice try, Doctor, but I am not Knuckles. I am not so easily fooled. I know you are hiding something from me."

"Alright," Eggman said, closing the box. "I suppose it's back to the drawing board. Snively, would you destroy these please? We won't be needing them, it seems." He passed the box to his waiting nephew.

Shadow froze in the doorway. "Wait." He couldn't believe he was doing this. He turned back to Eggman.

"Yes?" The doctor waited expectantly, with Snively beside him with the box.

Shadow sighed. "Give them to me, and I'll think about it. It seems like a waste to throw them away…"

Eggman beamed and snatched the box from Snively. He opened it and held the Rings out to Shadow. "Let me know how it works out for you when you use them."

Shadow picked up the Rings cautiously and looked at Eggman. "I will, Doctor."

And then Shadow walked out of Eggman's ship, headed for Freedom HQ.

Eggman smiled when he was gone. "Snively, watch the monitors. I want to know the minute he puts those Rings on."

Snively nodded. "But Uncle, I still do not understand why you gave him Rings to become more powerful. Aren't you trying to get rid of your enemies?"

He chuckled. "Shadow is not an enemy. After this, he will be an accomplice, though he will not be able to enjoy becoming my new ally. You see, as soon as he puts those Rings on, I can control his power and send him and the people around him to any dimension I choose. If I time it right, I'll never have to worry about that pesky blue hedgehog or any of his Freedom Fighting friends ever again! OH HO HO HO!"


	2. Chaos Uncontrolled

**Hey! So I'm not a picky person. Two reviews are enough for the second chapter to come up. I wasn't actually expecting very many reviews, though I was hopeful. Maybe as the story progresses I'll get more? Yes? No? Maybe? PLEASE??????**

**I already told EmpireofShadow this, but no worries about me disappearing. I'm going to finish this story, if it's the last thing I do! How fast I do will probably depend on you, the reader/(hopefully) reviewer.**

**Disclaimer: So here's the deal. I own no mention of and Sega characters or Pokémon characters, but this idea…Totally mine.**

Chapter 2

Chaos Uncontrolled

**Back at Freedom HQ**

"Hey, Knucky. Feeling better?" Rouge the bat asked as Sonic and Knuckles entered Freedom HQ.

"I was fine in the first place," Knuckles lied. "I had Shadow right where I wanted him. He just…surprised me. That's all. I could have taken him out."

"Mm-hum. Sure you could have."

Knuckles marched up to her. "What are you saying?" he demanded.

She turned from him with her nose in the air and a devious smirk on her painted lips. "You don't have to pretend you're stronger than you really are. We'll still love you, even if Shadow can take you out with one hand tied behind his back."

Knuckles' face turned redder than normal with his rage. "Why, I oughtta—!"

"Calm down, Knuckles. Don't get so worked up. It's not _your _fault that you're weaker than Shadow."

Knuckles went from red to purple and opened his mouth to protest, but Sonic interrupted him with a nudge in his side.

"Don't let her get to you, Knux. She's just trying to get you riled up `cuz she thinks it's cute," he said with a wink. "Then again, maybe you like it when she fires you up. Maybe you think it's hot."

Knuckles squared his shoulders, trying to look tough but he was betrayed by his embarrassed red complexion. "She keeps saying that Shadow's stronger than I am just because I didn't see him coming. I can't help it if he's good at sneaking up on people. If he hadn't been such a coward, I would've taken him out without a problem."

"I'll accept a rematch any day," a familiar, dark voice said from the door. Amy, Sonic, Tails, Rouge, and Knuckles turned to look at Shadow, who was leaning in the doorway with his arms crossed in front of him and his normal scowl on his face.

Knuckles glared at the black hedgehog, fighting the urge to attack him then and there.

Shadow didn't notice, nor did he care. He looked around at the Freedom Fighters. "Where is everyone?" he asked, noting that there was only five there.

Sonic blinked at him. "Sally, Rotor, Bunny, and Antoine are out on a mission. Why are _you _here?"

Shadow's expression never changed as he walked further into the headquarters. "I need a favour from Tails," he said simply, walking over to the fox and pressing two round objects into his hand.

Tails stared at them, then looked at Shadow. "Your Inhibitor Rings?"

"Not exactly," Shadow replied. "I need you to examine them or whatever it is that you do."

"Okay…" Tails took a seat at his desk. "What exactly am I looking for?"

Shadow shook his head. "I don't know. Anything…out of the ordinary."

"Why?" Amy asked. "What could be wrong with them?"

Shadow ignored her and watched as Tails placed the Rings under a scanner.

That made Amy angry. "HELLO!" she shouted at Shadow. "I'm trying to ask you a question!"

Shadow continued to ignore her.

"Hey!" she said, marching straight up to him and tapping him on the shoulder. "I'm talking to _you_, Shadow! The least you could do is acknowledge me!"

"Hey Faker, has anyone ever told you that your girlfriend is really annoying?" he said, glancing at Sonic but ignoring Amy.

Sonic smirked, but made sure Amy didn't notice. He would feel it later if she found him agreeing with Shadow.

Amy huffed, crossed her arms, and marched away from the broody hedgehog. "I give up. It's no wonder you don't have any friends, Shadow. You're a jerk." She stuck her tongue out at him as she joined Sonic on the other side of the room.

A quiet beeping started from the scanner and Tails picked up the Rings. "Wow," he said, staring at the gold-coloured metal. He turned to Shadow, who was waiting patiently. "I've—I've never seen anything like this before. These Rings…They have a lot of Chaos energy in them. More than any Ring I've ever seen. Actually, they're more powerful than any _Chaos Emerald _I've ever seen!"

Shadow actually looked surprised. "So he wasn't lying…" he said quietly.

Tails blinked at him. "Who?"

Shadow didn't answer, but asked a question of his own. "Did you notice anything…odd about them at all? Anything potentially dangerous?"

Tails raised an eyebrow. "No. But it is a little weird that they can only be activated by you. Right now, they're kind of in a lock-down mode. If there's anything dangerous about them, I'm afraid you'll have to find it out yourself."

"Hm."

Sonic noticed that Shadow hesitated before taking the Rings back from Tails.

"What's up, Shadow? You seem…I dunno, nervous," the blue hedgehog said.

Shadow glanced at him dismissively, then focused on the Chaos Emeralds that were shining in the glass case that Sonic was leaning against. "That is not the best place for those," he commented. "It wouldn't be hard for someone to come in and take them when you're not looking.

Tails smiled. "Actually, it wouldn't be a problem for someone to take _those_. Those ones are fake; I made them to be a decoy. They don't even work. The real ones are here," he said, picking up a brown hiking bag that was sitting beside his desk. "I'm going to make sure that we always have them with us, without Sonic having to carry them around in his hair."

Shadow chuckled. "Yes; that is annoying." He looked at the Rings in his hand.

"Are you going to try them out?" Knuckles asked, forgetting his anger towards the hedgehog as his curiosity about the powerful Rings grew.

"Yeah, Shadow. Let's see what those babies can do," Rouge added.

Shadow hesitated.

"What's the matter, Faker?" Sonic asked. "Don't you want to see just how powerful those Rings are?"

"Of course. But…" His voice trailed off.

"Well, what are you waiting for?"

Shadow sighed. Maybe the Rings _were_ just an honest experiment. There was only one way to find out...

Making a decision, Shadow removed one of his Inhibitor Rings, then the other, and set them on the desk in front of Tails. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Rouge, and Amy watched impatiently as Shadow placed a new Ring where the old one had been on his right wrist, then did the same with the left.

Immediately, he felt a new rush of power; something that normally only happened when he removed his Inhibitor Rings to release more Chaos energy than normal, or when he turned Super. Now he felt like he could release ten times that amount of force without ever needing to remove the new Rings. Eggman had been telling the truth after all.

**Back in Robotropolis**

"Uncle! Uncle!" Snively shouted. "The Rings have been activated!"

Eggman ran into the room as fast as his legs would carry his (rather plump) body. He stopped to catch his breath before leaning over Snively to stare at the screen.

Displayed on the large computer was a live video of what was happening at Freedom HQ, coming from the synthetic Rings on Shadow's wrists.

"Turn the camera!" Eggman demanded his nephew.

Snively grumbled and did as instructed.

The angle of the video changed so the two relatives could better see the room and people within it. Five figures appeared on the screen, and Eggman and Snively knew them to be Amy, Knuckles, Rouge, Tails, and the familiar blue hedgehog they had come to know and hate, Sonic.

Eggman punched the air excitedly. "It worked! He fell for it! I'm so genius, I scare myself! OH HO HO HO!"

Snively smiled. "Yes. Now all we have to do is press this button…"

Eggman's eyes widened in horror as the words TELEPORTATION SEQUENCE INITIATED. DESTINATION: RANDOM flashed in big red letters across the screen before the video went black.

"NO!" he shouted and whipped to face Snively. "What did you do?!"

"I pressed the button to send them away," his nephew replied casually. "That was the plan, wasn't it?"

"No!" Eggman screeched. "Only half of the Freedom Fighters were there! Sally, Rotor, Bunny, Antoine, the Chaotix; nearly all of our other enemies are still here! And I have the feeling that they will be mad at us for getting rid of their friends."

Snively stared in wide-eyed horror at his uncle. "I never thought about that…"

**In Freedom HQ**

"How do they feel, Shadow?" Sonic asked with a smile.

Shadow resisted the urge to smile back. "Good," he said in reply. "Amazing, actually. You would quite enjoy the feeling, Sonic, I'm sure."

Sonic shrugged. "I get that feeling when I'm in my Super form."

"I know. I have it, too. But this…this is something else."

It was true. He felt so powerful that he dare not unleash any Chaos energy while inside the building.

"Where did you get them, anyways?" Rouge asked. "It's hard to believe that you would just find them lying around, and Tails said that they are connected specifically to you."

Shadow looked at her. "Actually, they were given to me."

"By who?" everyone asked at the same time.

Shadow smiled. "It is unimportant." He gazed at the new Inhibitor Rings on his wrists. The power was real, he knew, but there was still something about them that was still bothering him. He knew Eggman had a second motive for everything he did, but he couldn't see what that motive could be in this case. Yes, he knew he currently harnessed more Chaos energy than he ever had in his natural state, but something was strange about it. It was as though the power was not actually his, but rather he was borrowing it from someone else.

He turned to the door. "I should go now," he said and started towards it. He heard a series of different voices say good-bye and he stopped, but not because of them.

Suddenly, he felt different. Chaos energy was building up in him. He felt it. The Rings warmed around his wrists.

He felt a hand on his shoulder. "What's wrong, Shadow?" Sonic asked from beside him.

Shadow didn't answer, but only because he wasn't sure. The Rings grew even warmer, and the heat spread throughout his entire body. It felt like Chaos Control, but with more energy than he had ever felt—even as Super Shadow. And he hadn't commanded it.

The heat grew steadily until it was no longer warm, but hot. Especially around his wrists. And yet, he was cold.

He shivered. "Something's happening…" he whispered to Sonic.

Sonic was worried. "You should take those off, Shadow. Tails, can you bring him back his Rings?"

Tails appeared at his other side, and Knuckles, Amy, and Rouge gathered as well.

The energy was growing, and Shadow felt like any moment he would explode with it. And it hurt. It hurt more than he knew was possible.

The Rings grew hotter and smoke started up from them.

Shadow fell to his knees as a sudden stab of pain entered his body. He was shivering uncontrollably now, and the Freedom Fighters had grown frantic.

"They're burning me!" Shadow hissed through the pain, pulling at the Rings. They refused to move.

Tails grabbed his wrist and latched onto the Ring. He let go immediately with a cry of pain. "They're red-hot!" he exclaimed, and it was true. The Rings' colour had changed from gold to redish-orange, as though held over a fire for a long period of time.

"GGAAAHHH!" Shadow screamed with the pain, unable to contain it.

By now, all five of the others were trying to pull the Rings off.

"What's happening?" Knuckles asked worriedly.

Shadow gritted his teeth. "Eggman—" he started, but another knife rippled through him. The Chaos energy continued to augment, but he couldn't control it. He knew that if he released it, the power would destroy everything and everyone in Freedom HQ.

"Eggman!" Sonic exclaimed. "Are you saying you got these Rings from _Eggman_?"

Shadow couldn't answer. He was focusing on keeping the Chaos power in him, but he was losing energy quickly now, the Chaos pushing to be free.

"Shadow…" Amy said, "You're glowing!"

Finally unable to contain it anymore, the Chaos burst out of Shadow in a bright red light. The heat in his wrists grew more and more. He heard a scream and realized it was his own. He heard voices yelling for him and each other, but from a great distance.

More pain shot through him as the Chaos poured out and the Rings heated. Red light surrounded him, covered him, entered him, until it was his entire being. His wrists burned and he could smell the cooking flesh. He closed his eyes against the pain. He wished it would stop! Make it stop!

Finally, he felt the burning of the Rings decrease as they shattered out from his hands, and then the burning was gone from his body, too. He felt as though he was falling, and he was suddenly very tired. He tried to open his eyes, but they refused to obey, and his fatigue overcame him.

He didn't even feel it when he hit the ground.

**On another world**

"And then I told Paul that it's more helpful to Chimchar if you encourage it even when it makes a mistake. But wouldn't you know it, Paul just ignored me!" the boy with the red baseball cap told his two friends. "Honestly, I don't know how any of them can stand having such a jerk for a trainer!"

"It's not like they can just up and leave him, Ash," the dark-skinned boy said, looking at his friend with his squinted eyes. "The trainer has to let them go first. The whole point of a Pokéball is to keep the Pokémon close."

"Well, _I _don't think they should let guys like Paul be trainers at all," said the girl with the almost-blue hair. "It should be against the law."

Ash smiled and stroked the yellow creature on his shoulder. "At least _you_ don't belong to someone like Paul, eh, Pikachu?"

"Pika!" the animal replied happily, rubbing against his best friend's cheek.

Ash laughed. "Yup. I guess not all of them can be as lucky as you are, Pikachu."

"Hey—Ash, what's that over there?" the girl asked, pointing to the sky above some trees just a short distance away.

Ash followed her finger and saw what she was pointing at. "I don't know, Dawn…It's some kind of weird red light. What do you think, Brock?"

The oldest boy squinted at the light. "It looks like a move of some kind… Hey! Look! Something's falling from it!"

He pointed, and sure enough, an odd black shape had taken the place of the light and was falling rapidly to the ground. It disappeared behind the trees.

The three friends looked at each other.

"Ash," Dawn said slowly, "you don't think that was a Pokémon…"

Ash was already running in the direction of the object. "I don't know," he called over his shoulder, "but if it is, it may need us. Come on!"

Brock and Dawn looked at each other uncertainly, then took off after their friend.


	3. Another World

**So I **_**really **_**wanted to get this chapter written. Here it is! I like it, personally. It was rather amusing to write. I hope you like it! R&R please!**

**Disclaimer: I still don't own the Sega dudes, and neither do I own the Pokémon dudes.**

Chapter 3

Another World

The sound of chirping animals and the smell of clean soil forced Shadow's eyes open. He blinked, trying to clear his head, and realized he was lying on his back inside an tent of some kind that had no bottom. The sunlight outside cast an orange-yellow glow around the small area.

He pushed himself up, instantly regretting the use of his hands as searing pain entered his wrists. _Oh, yeah_, he thought to himself, _Eggman's Rings…_

Shadow stood up with a groan and poked his head out the door to look around. When he couldn't see anyone, he stepped out. He was in a campsite of some kind on the edge of a field where the grass was half as tall as he was, but he didn't recognize the area.

_Chaos Control must have sent me to another world_, he thought to himself. _But where_?

He looked around, trying to get a sense of where he was. All of it seemed relatively the same as his home world; the trees and grass were tall, the soil smelled fresh and clean, and animals could be heard moving around in the woods and trees. The difference was that the trees and grass were a kind he had never seen before, the soil's scent was unfamiliar, and he couldn't identify the animal sounds in the woods. He could smell the other animals, and none of them had the scent of people from his world.

Shadow looked around the camp. He could tell it had only been set up for no more than half an hour, and it had been set up in a hurry. The tent was lop-sided, the fireplace was an irregular circle of stones without any wood or fire, and the footprints and trampled grass all around the area showed signs of a frenzy just a short while ago.

He figured that whoever had found him had gone to get supplies or something and he decided he didn't have time to stick around to wait for them to come back. He had to try to find the others. If they had been caught in Chaos Control, then there was a good chance that Sonic, Tails, Amy, Knuckles, and Rouge were here with him. If they hadn't been brought to this world, then they would most likely have been destroyed by the blast of Chaos energy. He hoped for their sake that they had been teleported as well.

So, without any further thought, he turned to the field and started across it.

He only made it halfway when a sound behind him caught his ear. He turned towards the trees by the tent, where the sound was coming from.

It was only another half a minute before a small, fat, and annoyingly cute yellow creature ran towards him from out of the trees. It stopped right in front of him and Shadow looked down at the odd animal. It was up to his waist, and had long pointy ears with black tips, as well as red splotches on its cheeks, brown stripes on its back, and a tail shaped like a lightning bolt. It blinked at him while Shadow stared at it.

Not long after, it was followed by three panting—were they _humans_? Shadow looked at them in surprise. How could there be humans? Was he back on Earth? It couldn't be… he had never seen any sort of creature that looked like the yellow thing during his time on Earth. And yet, here were three humans, about the same age as his human friend Maria had been. The darker-skinned one with the squinty eyes looked like he might be a few years older than the other two, but not much more than that.

The one with the baseball cap reached him first. He was taller than Shadow by a little more than a foot and a half, and Shadow noticed how his black hair stuck out from his hat like spikes.

The boy smiled at him and stood up straight when he had caught his breath. "Hey! I'm glad to see you're up and about!" he said, a little over-enthusiastically. Shadow watched him curiously as his two companions joined his side, but all three stood back a distance from him.

"Don't get too close," the squinty-eyed one whispered to his friends. "Wild Pokémon can be very aggressive."

Shadow stared at him. Wild _what_? He had no idea what a 'Pokémon' was, but he was pretty sure that he did NOT fall under that category.

He looked down at the little yellow animal. It smiled and waved at him with its stubby hand.

"Pikachu!" it said excitedly.

Shadow raised an eyebrow. 'Peek at you'? Peek at _who_? Was it some kind of freakish wanna-be stalker thing, shouting 'peek at you' at random strangers?

He looked back at the humans and noticed that the squinty-eyed one had crouched down and was approaching him very slowly, while the girl pulled out some sort of device that said "Species unknown."

_Duh, I'm a hedgehog_, Shadow thought.

He watched the kid inch towards him, keeping his body abnormally low. _What is he doing?_ Shadow wondered.

The human stopped a few feet from him. "Hi, little guy," he said quietly.

Whoa! Hold up! _Little guy_?

"My name is Brock," he continued. "These are my friends Ash and Dawn."

The other humans waved upon introduction.

Shadow backed up a step out of pure confusion. Did they think he was some kind of animal? Okay, so technically, he was an animal. But he was an anthromorph, not a pet.

"It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you," the human said.

_You couldn't hurt me if you tried_, Shadow thought.

"You look like you've been in a fight with something," he said to Shadow.

_Do I look that bad?_ The hedgehog wondered, looking himself over.

He really did look like he had been in a fight. Dirt and bruises from his impact with the ground covered him from head to toe, and his wrists were badly burned and bleeding.

_Oh no! The Rings!_

Shadow stared at his wrists in shock, realizing for the first time what their emptiness meant. Without the Rings, he had no way of conserving his energy. Using any of the Chaos power would exhaust him immediately.

_I can't believe I was so stupid! _he scolded himself. _How could I have allowed myself to fall for Eggman's trick?_

The one that identified himself as Brock reached out for Shadow's hand. Shadow withdrew instinctively, not wanting any physical contact involving hands and men.

"It's okay," Brock said, pulling a roll of gauze out of his back pocket.

_Who does that?_

"Why don't you let me take a look at that?" The strange human reached for his hand again. "I waited to do this until you were feeling better. It's always better to let your wounds get some air before you bandage them."

Shadow hesitated, but decided to let him. This human seemed nice enough, and it was obvious that he only wanted to help. Though _what_ exactly he thought he was helping, Shadow was unsure of.

Brock turned his hand over gently, examining the burns left from the Rings. He pulled a little spray bottle out of his other pocket.

"This may sting a little bit…" he said and sprayed a small squirt on Shadow's wrist.

Instant pain shot into his burn, and in an automatic reflex, his fist balled and shot outwards, connecting with Brock's jaw and sending him flying backwards across the field. He landed with a loud thump right in front of the trees which they had emerged from. Ash and Dawn ran over to help him.

_Oops_, Shadow thought. He looked down. The stalker mouse looked angry.

"Pika! Pika pi! Pikachu, pika pi pi!" it shouted at him.

Shadow blinked at it. "You have to pee?" he asked it. The humans were too far away to hear.

It tilted his head at him and blinked confusedly, then ran over to the boy with the hat, who was helping the other boy to his feet with the girl named Dawn. It started screaming its stalker language at Ash, trying to communicate what Shadow guessed as its need to go relieve itself.

Shadow shrugged and picked up the gauze that Brock had dropped upon impact. He sat down on the ground and began wrapping his own wrist. He couldn't figure out why Brock wanted to do it for him; he was perfectly capable of taking care of himself.

When he had finished his right wrist and began working on his left, he sensed someone leaning over him. He looked up into the face of the one named Ash, who was staring at him with an expression of amazement.

"Brock…Dawn…You guys have to see this," he called over his shoulder, never taking his eyes off of Shadow.

In a few seconds, the other two humans stood with Ash, staring down at Shadow.

Shadow looked up at them, his regular scowl reappearing on his face for the first time since meeting them. They backed off immediately and Shadow finished nursing his wounds.

When he was done, he stood up and tossed the remaining bandage back to Brock. He turned and began walking across the field and away from the humans and their stalker pet. He had spent enough time with these people, and it was time to move on and see if he could find any of the others.

"Hey!" he heard the female human call after him. "Where are you going?"

He turned and looked at the girl with hair that was really close to being blue.

She smiled kindly at him. "Why don't you stay with us for a little while? At least until you're back to full health."

He blinked at her, shook his head, and kept walking. The little yellow thing ran after him. It stopped directly in front of him, forcing him to stop.

"Pika, pikachu. Pika pi, pi, pikachu." It smiled.

Shadow stared at it. "You do realize that I have no idea what you're saying, right?" he said to it.

It looked shocked, then turned and ran back to Ash.

Shadow rolled his eyes and kept walking. Ten seconds later, the thing was back.

"Pikachu!" it shouted, pointing frantically to the humans. "Pika, pika pi, pikachu, pika!"

Shadow tried to ignore it and kept walking. It blocked his way again.

"Pi-ka-chu!" it said slowly, first pointing to Shadow, then to Ash.

Shadow looked back at the humans, who seemed to be waiting expectantly for something to happen. He felt the creature tap his leg and looked back down at it.

It met his gaze evenly. "Pika, pika pi," it said in a whisper.

"I don't understand you! Speak English!" Shadow said to it, too far away to be heard by the humans.

The animal looked agitated. Shadow stepped past it, but it got in front of him again. "PIKACHU!" it screamed and grabbed onto Shadow's foot.

"Get off me!" Shadow hissed and tried to shake it off gently, but the creature held tight. Shadow shook harder, then harder, then as hard as he could to get the thing off of his foot.

It worked.

The stalker animal lost its grip on his foot and flew through the air, clearing twenty, thirty, forty feet of field and still going.

"_PPPPIIIIKKKKAAAACCCCHHHHUUUU!!!!_" it screamed as it flew further and further away.

_Oops_.


	4. Hostile Hospitality

**I might not post again on this story for a little while (a couple weeks), because I have two other stories' chapters that I haven't even started yet and it's been almost two weeks since I posted for at least one of them. So I'm going to focus on the next Max Ride chapter before I do anymore for any other stories. I'll try to hurry, because I love writing this more than my other ones. Sorry.**

**Disclaimer: I still do not own Sonic the Hedgehog or Pokémon.**

Chapter 4

Hostile Hospitality

"Pikachu!" the three humans screamed at the same time.

Ohh…Pikachu was its _name_…

Reacting on impulse, Shadow broke into a run, skating across the field faster than the naked eye can see. He caught the falling creature before it hit the ground, and he heard three sighs of relief and awe escape the humans. Pikachu, on the other hand, was silent and stiff. Shadow looked it over and saw that it was frozen in terror. He chuckled and walked back towards the humans with the animal.

When he reached the three, Shadow held out the Pikachu to Ash, who took it and cradled it in his arms.

"Wow…" he said to Shadow when Pikachu had calmed down. "That was amazing! You're really strong, and fast, too! You must be a pretty powerful Pokémon, huh?"

Shadow rolled his eyes and turned to leave again, but was stopped when he felt a hand touch his arm. He looked and saw that it was Dawn. She was looking at him with pleading eyes.

"Please stay," she said softly. "Just for a little while. You need rest and nourishment, and we can always spare some food for a friend." She smiled.

Shadow stared at her. Something about her seemed familiar, especially her eyes. But he couldn't place where he had seen eyes like them before. He felt like somehow he knew her from a time long, long ago. He somehow knew he could trust her.

Finally, he made a decision and nodded to the girl. He would stay only a short while—long enough to rebuild a little strength before setting out in search of others from Mobius. He felt he owed it to them, on account of punching Brock and kicking Pikachu. The least he could do was accept a dinner invitation. Besides, it would be a good opportunity to learn more about this strange world.

Dawn smiled. "Great! If you can wait a little while, Brock will get you something to eat."

Brock bent down and began emptying pots, pans, bowls, and ingredients of some kind onto the ground from his backpack. Shadow remained standing, feeling a little out of place. Pikachu sat beside Ash, but its eyes were watching Shadow suspiciously. Shadow glared at it unblinkingly until it finally looked away from him.

"So," Ash said to Shadow. "What kind of Pokémon are you? You must be very rare; even the Pokédex can't identify you."

Shadow watched him, but said nothing.

Ash looked up at him. "Shy, huh? That's okay. You don't need to be nervous around us. We're all friends here."

Shadow continued to watch him silently.

"Do you have a name?" Ash asked, being persistant.

Shadow nodded.

Ash looked like he felt awkward, and Shadow could tell that he wasn't use to talking to someone as stubborn as him. He couldn't help but smile slightly, amused.

Brock took up the questions. "I've never seen anything like you before," he said, looking up from whatever he was doing. "Are you…a Legendary Pokémon?"

Shadow raised an eyebrow. So now they were _Legendary_?

Brock noticed his confusion, and in turn, was confused himself. "You know…Legendary. Very rare and powerful Pokémon that usually only show up when they're needed. You know that… Normal Pokémon know all about the Legendary ones, more so than people."

Shadow blinked at him.

"Just leave it alone, guys," Dawn butted in. "It doesn't have to talk to us if it doesn't want to. It's probably nervous. We are complete strangers to it, after all. It probably wants to make sure that it can trust us." She smiled at Shadow. "Right?"

He couldn't help but smile back. He was beginning to like this girl's company.

"Why don't you have a seat?" she asked him. "There's no sense on you standing there like that; you'll just make your feet sore."

"Besides," Brock added, "it'll be better if you rest. You'll heal a lot faster."

Shadow knew he was right. He still felt exhausted from the forced exertion of Chaos, and if he wanted to gain back his energy, then he would have to take it easy, at least for a little while. He may have been stubborn, but he knew his limits, and he was pushing them.

He sat down and Pikachu joined his side. He crossed his arms and waited, watching Brock curiously and wondering what exactly he was making with the weird-smelling herbs and gravy-looking stuff. He had lit two fires, one in the first fireplace and another in a medium-sized metal burning box, and held a small pan over each one. Shadow recognized the scent of cooking pasta and his stomach growled loudly against his will.

Brock looked at him and smiled. "Hungry? Don't worry. It won't be long now."

After another couple of minutes, Brock took the pans away from the fire and smothered the flames with dirt and rocks.

Shadow waited patiently as Brock finished preparing the food. Ash finished pitching the tent off to the side and Dawn was helping him unroll the sleeping bags when Brock announced that everything was ready. He placed a bowl in front of Shadow, who stared at it blankly.

He found himself looking at brown balls of something that smelled like cat food. Pikachu sat on the other side of the dish and began shoving the stuff in his mouth. Shadow looked at Brock questioningly.

"What's wrong?" Brock asked. "Aren't you hungry?"

"Maybe it doesn't like your cooking," Ash said with a laugh, shoving a forkful of noodles into his mouth.

Shadow looked at Pikachu and noticed it was staring at him. It picked up one of the balls and held it out to him. "Pika?"

Shadow shook his head, and the three humans stared at him. "I really don't think it likes your cooking, Brock," Ash said.

"Maybe it just doesn't like Pokémon food," Dawn suggested.

"What kind of Pokémon doesn't like Pokémon food?" Brock asked, still staring at Shadow. "Especially _my _Pokémon food. They all love my Pokémon food. Always."

"Well, I'm sure they have taste buds, too," Ash said. "Just like I don't like chilli and you both love it."

"But…" Brock's face twisted in confusion. "They always like my cooking…"

Shadow rolled his eyes and looked back down at Pikachu, who was still holding the ball out to him. "Pikachu…" it said with a smile, then took a big bite out the 'food' and held it back out to Shadow.

Shadow decided enough was enough; he had better, more important things to do than sit around with a bunch of humans and an annoying stalker mouse. He had to try to find Sonic and the others, and he had to do it now before anything happened to him or them. These people were treating him like some kind of wild animal, and at this point, he had no idea how to break the news that he wasn't without giving them a heart attack. He was leaving, and he wouldn't let anything stop him this time.

So still without a word, he stood and headed across the field at a walking pace.

"Where are you going?" Dawn called after him.

"It must have someplace to be," Brock said, finally saying something sensible.

He walked a few more steps before he heard Ash yell something that made no sense to him.

"Pikachu! Bolt tackle!"

Shadow glanced over his shoulder in time to see the little yellow thing running towards him, surrounded by yellow electricity and with a determined expression on its face. He was nearly completely turned to it when it slammed into him.

He was thrown back a few feet on impact, and he felt a strong electric shock pass from Pikachu to him. The creature returned to Ash's side as Shadow struggled to get to his feet.

"Ash!" Brock shouted at his friend. "What do you think you're doing?"

Ash kept his eyes on Shadow, who glared back at him. "I'm going to be the first one to catch this type of Pokémon," he replied, taking out some kind of red and white ball. "I'm not going to let it walk out of here without a battle. I doubt I'll ever have an opportunity like this again."

Shadow, not wanting any part in whatever Ash was doing, turned and continued on his way.

He barely even managed to take a step before he heard Ash again. "Pikachu, use Thunderbolt!"

This time, Shadow was faster. He whipped around and saw the lightning bolt coming towards him from the yellow thing in time to jump out of the way. The electricity hit the ground where he had been just a moment before. He rolled to his feet and looked back to Ash, this time with a little worry building up in him. If that attack had hit him…

"Stop it, Ash!" Dawn was shouting at him, but he ignored her.

"Iron Tail, Pikachu!"

"No!"

Pikachu ran towards Shadow again, its tail stiffening and turning bright white. It jumped into the air and Shadow braced himself to catch it before it could tackle him again. Turns out that wasn't the plan. Instead, the stubby creature rolled in the air and brought its tail crashing down on Shadow's head.

"Ug!" Shadow exclaimed upon contact. He fell to his knees with his head in his hands, feeling as though he had been struck with a hammer on the top of his skull.

"Ash, cut it out!" he barely heard Brock scream. "Can't you see that it's not in the condition to battle?"

"You said it needs rest," Ash replied. "What better place to get it than in a Pokéball? It refused our first method of help, so it's on to plan B."

"You're acting like Paul!" Dawn screamed at him. Her shrill voice made Shadow's head throb even worse.

Ash turned to her briefly. "Don't worry. I'll release it after it's back to full health. If it wants to go, that is." He looked at his pet. "Pikachu, finish it off with tackle!"

The animal ran at him again, but Shadow had had enough. He stood up and threw his hand in the air, guiding spears of Chaos energy with his hand towards Pikachu, forgetting about his lack of Inhibitor Rings. The spears hit the running creature directly and sent it flying back towards Ash. It landed a few feet in front of the boy and lay still. Shadow suddenly felt a great amount of his energy drain.

_Crap, _he thought. _I shouldn't have done that…_ His knees were shaking and he could barely stand, but he kept his form standing tall. He wasn't going to show his weakness to this ignorant _human_.

Ash looked from Pikachu to Shadow with wide eyes that soon turned angry and determined. He pulled two other red and white balls out of his pockets and pressed a button on each to make them grow. He threw them into the air against his friends' protests.

"Charzard! Squirtle! I choose you!"

Shadow watched in amazement as the two balls opened up and a beam of red light left them and hit the ground, where they formed into two equally strange looking animals. The first to appear looked just like a turtle, but it was blue, had a long curly tail, and stood on its hind legs. The second was much bigger than the first—even bigger than the humans—and largely resembled an orange dragon, but with a live flame dancing on the tip of its tail. The animals stood halfway between him and Ash.

_What are these things?_

Shadow backed up a step but refused to run. If it was a fight that Ash wanted, a fight he would get. Shadow was, after all, the Ultimate Lifeform. He wasn't going to make it easy.

He made the first move, not giving Ash the chance to give his pets an order. He went for the dragon first, running at it as fast as he could manage and head-butting it in the stomach. The dragon bent over with a grunt and Shadow jumped straight up, kneeing it in the jaw and knocking it backwards. Next came the turtle. Using the momentum of his fall, Shadow brought his foot down hard on the turtle's shell, driving it into the ground. The strange animal's eyes changed from small black dots swirled circles, which Shadow found odd but had no time to dwell on.

With the two animals disabled, Shadow turned towards Ash. Somebody had to teach this kid a lesson, and Shadow was the most qualified to do so. But using Chaos Spear had taken a lot of energy out of him from the lack of Inhibitor Rings, and Shadow found himself hardly able to breath steadily, let alone stand. So he decided to just walk away and try to find the others before Ash could bring out another animal.

Unfortunately, he had underestimated Ash. Shadow had only made it a meter or so before the boy shouted another order.

"Charzard, Tail Whip!"

He didn't even have time to turn around before he was struck between the shoulder blades by something long and heavy that slammed him into the ground. He felt a pop in his left shoulder and pain shot through his arm, back, and neck. Bright dots exploded in front of his eyes and he tasted dirt and blood. The weight of the dragon's tail slid off of him and he heard a cry of victory from Ash, while Dawn and Brock were shouting at him angrily.

_I should have known it would take more than that to keep that monster down, _Shadow thought as he forced his muscles to move and pushed himself to his knees with his right hand, noticing that his left arm's movement was restricted and painful. _Two foolish acts in one day. _Sweat dripped down his face as he struggled to find his breath.

Shadow barely noticed when Ash pressed the button on the first red and white ball he had taken out before throwing it, but he felt when it hit and bounced off his head. He glanced at it when it landed beside him and opened up, and suddenly he found himself surrounded by nothing but black.

But he barely had time to think about it before he was suddenly back on the ground, in the same position as before. The ball remained opened beside him. The black hedgehog glared at Ash, who seemed astounded for some reason.

But it didn't last long. Ash regained his composure and shouted another order.

"Squirtle, return! Charzard! Use Flamethrower before it can get back up!"

Shadow's eyes widened in fear (which doesn't happen very often) at the sudden blast of fire that shot from the giant lizard's mouth and straight for him. Any other time, he would have been able to come through it unscathed. However, in his current condition…

He closed his eyes and dropped to the ground, doing what he could to brace himself for the inevitable. Time seemed to stand still. Memories flooded his mind of the girl Maria, the alien Molly. Both of them were gone now, but he remembered them with perfect clarity as he lay pressed against the ground, the fire racing towards him. It roared in his ears as it drew nearer, nearer, until it was so close now that he felt the heat, saw the light through his eyelids, smelled the burning gas from the beast's throat. _I'm coming, Maria…_

"Piplup, protect it with Hydro Pump!" The feminine shout pulled Shadow back to what was happening, and he was surprised to hear a sizzling sound like that which comes from throwing water on a woodstove. He was even more surprised when after a few seconds, he no longer felt the heat.

Shadow forced his eyes open and looked around, noticing that the field was suddenly covered with a cloud of steam. He saw a figure walking towards him and saw that it was Dawn. She had a small blue and white bird at her side.

Dawn crouched beside Shadow, who stared into her worried eyes, dazed. "Are you okay?" she asked softly.

Shadow continued to gaze at her eyes that seemed so familiar. "Yes," he said quietly, not even sure if the words had actually exited his mouth.

Dawn's expression changed to one of surprise and Brock joined her side, but Shadow didn't notice him. "You can talk?" she asked.

"I am capable of many things," he replied in an exhausted voice. "…But not now."

"What do you mean?"

"My power…I need to charge. Soon," he said absently, feeling as though he were in a dream of some kind.

Dawn and Brock exchanged confused glances but decided not to pursue the subject further. Instead, Brock asked, "What is you're name?"

The black and red hedgehog glanced at him for a moment before returning his gaze to Dawn. "I am called Shadow."

"It's okay, Shadow. You're safe now," said Dawn in a soothing voice that reminded him of…

"Maria…" he said without meaning to, feeling his muscles begin to relax as her image swam before his eyes.

"What?" the girl asked, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

Shadow locked eyes with her briefly. "Thank you," he whispered before his exhaustion overcame him for the second time that day and his world once again became as black as his quills.

**A/N: So that's it for that chapter. I actually would have had it posted sooner, but I read through it again and decided to change it all from "Bolt Tackle" down. I like this version better, and I hope my instincts are right that you, the reader, will like it too. And for those of you wondering why Mae has been replaced with Dawn, that was my mistake. It was supposed to be Dawn in the first place, but I thought it was Mae. Thanks muchly to Crazy Muffin Assassin for showing me the error of my ways. I have also changed the name in previous chapters, by the way.**


	5. What Are These Things, Anyway?

**YAY! It's updated! Thank you so much to all of my reviewers! I'm almost overwhelmed by the amount for chapter four! I had something like fifteen reviews for it! Needless to say, I was happy you all liked it so much. I worked like fury all day to get this chappie done for you. **

**So you're probably wondering what's happening to Sonic and co. at this point. You'll get the answers to the Sonic part today. I was going to have all of the others squeezed into this, but this chapter took on a life of its own! If I did bad on the first half, I'm sorry. I seem to have trouble tapping in to Sonic's vibe… Enjoy anyways!**

**Special Note: Was this fast enough update, Kisari? ;p**

**Disclaimer: No, I still do not own Pokémon or *sniffle* Sonic the Hedgehog. Why do you keep reminding me? *breaks down and cries***

Chapter 5

What Are These Things, Anyway?

**Meanwhile…**

"Hello? Anybody out here?" the blue hedgehog called again. "Tails? Amy? Shadow? _Anyone_?"

He was walking through an unfamiliar forest, as he had been for last half-hour. Somehow, he had been teleported to this world, probably—hopefully—with Shadow and the others. But he was separated from them all now, and he had no idea where to look in order to find them. He didn't know what world he was on, he didn't know how big it was, and he had no idea if there was intelligent life on it or not. All he could do was keep searching.

Sonic kept walking.

A sound in a tree above him made him stop. "Tails?" he asked, looking up. He couldn't see anything in the dark shadows of the branches, but he sensed that someone—or something—was up there. "Hey bud, is that you?"

No answer.

He decided to check it out, then bent his powerful legs and jumped straight up, defying gravity for a short time. He reached a branch halfway up the tree, grabbed it as he flew past, and spun around on it until he could firmly place his feet. Once he did, he set about jumping from branch to branch until he reached the spot where he thought the noise had come from. "Tails? Are you up here? Bud?"

Sonic looked around nervously. Though he couldn't see anything, he had this strange feeling that he was being watched. And not by Tails, either.

He faced the shadows beneath the nearest branches and was startled when the big, round red eyes appeared in them. Sonic backed up a step, pressing himself against the tree trunk, and the thing attacked.

Sonic screamed and curled into a ball with his hands over his head (acting a lot like Tails) as the red-eyed monster flapped around his head until finally it came to rest sitting directly between his ears. Slowly, slowly, Sonic opened his eyes…

And found himself staring into the face of a small round bird with huge red eyes.

It tilted its head in his face. "Hoot hoot?" it said.

Sonic blinked at it and it jumped off his head to stand in front of him. Sonic noticed that, oddly, the bird (which looked remarkably like an Earth owl) had only one leg. It looked at him again. "Hoot?"

"Huh?" Sonic said.

"Hoot, hoot hoot."

Sonic smiled, slightly shaken. "Are you trying to talk to me? You're a pretty cute little guy, aren't you?"

It tilted its head to the other side. "Hoo, hoo hoot." It blinked.

Sonic regained his composure and stood up straight. He continued to smile at the ball of an owl. "Hey, have you seen my friends around anywhere? A fox a bit shorter than me with two tails? There's also a female bat with very big…well, you know; there's a red echidna with big knuckles; a pink hedgehog with a red dress and matching hair band; and maybe a black, broody hedgehog with red streaks and eyes?"

It seemed to smile at him. "Hoot!" It jumped off the branch that it shared with Sonic and flapped it wings. It hovered and looked at Sonic expectantly.

"You want me to follow you?" Sonic asked.

"Hoot."

Sonic smiled and jumped branch after branch down the tree until he was on the ground, with the single-footed owl hovering above him. The odd creature hooted at him once more before turning its attention east and beginning its flight. Sonic followed at a light jog, easily keeping up with the bird. "Hey, where are you taking me?" the blue hedgehog asked with a chuckle after a few minutes of playing 'follow the leader'.

He was surprised, though, when the owl promptly stopped and looked around nervously. "…Hoo…" it said quietly, looking down at Sonic.

"What?" He looked around, trying to figure out what the animal was trying to tell him. All that had changed about their surroundings was that in this particular area of woods, there were huge golden-brown pinecone-type-thingies with two black spots hanging from the branches of the trees.

"What are those things?" Sonic asked the animal, not expecting an answer.

Just then, a low buzzing could be heard approaching the two and the owl turned frantic. "HOOTHOOTHOOTHOOTHOOT!" it screamed, flapping as hard as it could and lifting straight out of the forest.

"Hey!" Sonic called after it. "Where are you going? You haven't helped me find my friends yet!"

The creature ignored him and continued on its way, disappearing over the trees in seconds.

"Fine!" Sonic yelled. "Thanks for nothing! I guess I'll just have to do it on my own, per usual."

The buzzing grew louder as he continued through the trees. _Hm…must be coming close to a beehive, _he thought to himself and smiled. _Maybe that bird is allergic to bee stings…_

The buzzing kept growing louder and louder until it filled the air and Sonic frowned. _It would take a lot of bees to buzz that loud._

Sonic was in the center of the trees with the pinecones now and the buzzing was so loud the he had to put his hands over his ears. And then he realized where the buzzing was coming from:

_Behind him!_

He whipped around…

And found himself facing dozens of the biggest hornets he had ever seen. They had huge red eyes, a large stinger in the regular place, and, worse than that, two huge stingers _on their hands_!

And they all looked mad.

Then he realized what the 'pinecones' were.

_The babies._

Sonic had gotten between these massive insects and their larva.

He drew a nervous breath. "H—hey fellas," he said shakily. "Are these you're babies? Don't mind me; I was just—"

"Beedrill," the one closest to him cut him off.

He scratched his head. "Huh?"

"Beedrill!" it repeated, obviously angry. It advanced on him, its stingers out menacingly. The other mutant hornets followed its lead. "Beedrillbeedrillbeedrill!" the entire group of insects buzzed.

Sonic nervously backed up a step, ready to run. "Uhh…I'll just go."

The mass of insects suddenly sprung forward with amazing speed. The one in front swiped at him with its stingers and Sonic dodged it just in time. "Hey, watch it!" he said. The hornet jabbed again, and this time nicked Sonic's right arm with the tip of its back stinger. Immediately the cut began to itch and burn as a small drop of red oozed to the surface of the skin.

Deciding it was time to get out of there, Sonic turned presently and took off as fast as he dared to go in the dense forest. And even going at that speed, he narrowly avoided crashing into a few trees. He was a fast runner with fast reflexes, but it wasn't very often that he had to dodge something with every step. He was used to running in a straight line and making quick ninety-degree turns. It didn't help that in this forest, roots jutted from the ground, the ground was soft and covered in slippery moss, and there were more strange creatures he kept tripping over—one of which was a drooling mushroom that sprayed him with something smelling worse than skunk. Besides all that, these bugs were fast and determined and angry. The hornets had the upper hand this time.

The hedgehog glanced behind him and noted that the swarm was no more than thirty feet away from him, but the distance varied with every obstacle that came his way.

_I'd better lose these guys… fast! _he thought, briefly turning to run backwards. _Time to stop playing around, Sonic! Get your head in the game. It's only a bunch of big…freaky…mutant…bugs…with really…big…stingers…_

"Hoot!"

"Huh?" Sonic whipped around just in time to dodge a tree and found that the owl that had ditched him was flying just a small ways ahead of him.

"Hoot!" it said again, swivelling its head to look at him.

Sonic smiled, knowing what it was doing. "Alright, you're the native," he said, speeding up briefly to catch up with the owl. As he increased speed, so did the hornets, buzzing angrily.

The bird led Sonic through the remaining forest, across a field, and through more trees before Sonic heard something besides the constant buzzing of the hornets. At first, he thought he was imagining the sound of running water over the monotone roar of the insects. But as they kept moving, the sound grew louder and louder until it was unmistakably the roar of a running river. Sure enough, a few seconds and a few trees later, Sonic found himself staring at the white rapids and black stones of a wide river.

The owl hovered just over the water in front of Sonic, waiting expectantly.

"What?" Sonic asked. The owl tilted its head and Sonic realized what it meant. "I'm not jumping in that!" he declared.

"Beedrill!"

Sonic whipped around and found that the swarm of giant insects had caught up and were angrier than ever.

"Hoot hoot!" The owl sounded desperate behind him.

"I don't like water!" Sonic hissed to it.

The lead hornet advanced again, jabbing viciously with its back stinger and driving Sonic backwards. The rest of them closed in on every open side except in back of him. In just another moment, he barely had room to move.

The hornet swiped again but Sonic had had enough. The anthromorph jumped straight up so he was over the insects' heads, then rolled into a ball and attacked. Propelling himself straight downwards towards the head hornet, he slammed into its head and knocked it to the ground.

Apparently, that was the wrong move. Immediately, the other hornets lunged at him, covering him where he landed and poking at him with their stingers—both hands and rear. Mostly rear.

_Man…_ Sonic thought, gritting his teeth as he tried (and failed) to dodge all the stingers. _What _are _these things, anyway? _

"Hoot!"

The nervous cries of the owl caught Sonic's ear over the overwhelming buzz of the giant hornets. Another stinger barely poked his eyebrow, and by now, he was itching and burning all over.

"Get your pointy butts out of my face!" Sonic yelled, jumping straight up and finally breaking free of the swarm.

Once in the air, he saw why the owl was crying out. The lead bug had recovered and was now jabbing at the bird with a few others of the mutant insects. Sonic knew that he could—eventually—take out all of these over-sizes hornets, but he couldn't risk that little creature getting hurt in the process. Besides that, he still had to find the others. And so, the hedgehog used momentum from gravity pulling him back down to push off of one of the insects' heads towards the brown bird.

"Sorry fellas," he said as he bounced off of the three hornets attacking the owl in a spinball attack, "but I don't have time for this. Maybe we can finish this some other time." With that, he grabbed the shaking owl and continued through the air until his momentum wore off and he landed with a splash in the rapids of the river.

**Meanwhile, downriver…**

"Come on out, Starmie, Seadra," the red-haired, blue eyed girl said, releasing her two pets/best friends from their Pokéballs. Misty smiled at them as they materialized from the red beam of light. "Go have some fun, guys. We have time enough for a break."

At that moment, another red beam of light shot out from inside her backpack and her most disliked Pokémon also materialized. "Psy psy?" the yellow duck with the stubby arms and big eyes said.

Misty sighed. "Fine, Psyduck, you can go play too."

"Psy aye aye…" It turned and wobbled away, holding its head from the constant head-ache it always complained about.

Misty couldn't help but chuckle at her Pokémon as the three of them splashed and squirted each other in the calm waters of the river. They were always so happy, and she was glad that she could keep it that way. Even Psyduck, who often got on her nerves and was subject to most of her yelling, was always happy, and in truth, she didn't really dislike its annoyingness. It had grown on her after a while.

She leaned back in the afternoon sun and closed her eyes with pleasure, listening to the splashes of her playing Pokémon and remembering a certain boy, whom she had met a few years ago. There had always been a friendly rivalry between the two, with him constantly teasing her just to get her aggravated with him. She'd come to like it after a while. She'd come to like _him._ But she had had to leave if she ever wanted to become a gym leader. Sure, they ran into each other now and again, but they could never have the same adventures now.

_I wonder what you're doing now, Ash…_

Misty noticed that the splashing from her Pokémon had ceased and she opened her eyes and sat up. She immediately saw that they had stopped playing and were staring at the other side of the river, seventy feet away. "What's up guys?" she asked, watching them curiously. That's when she saw it.

Floating down the river fifty feet away from them was a spiky cobalt-blue animal that was thrashing and playing in the water with a Hoothoot.

_That's strange, _she thought. _What's a Hoothoot doing playing in the river with this…this…What is that, anyways? _

She whipped out her Pokédex and pointed it at the two wild Pokémon in the river.

"Hoothoot," the mechanical voice said, "the owl Poké—"

Misty pressed a button to cut it off. "Not that one," she said aloud. She pressed another button and waited for the scan.

"…Species unidentifiable," the machine finally said.

Misty smiled. "So we have a new water-type Pokémon, huh? In that case, I'm going to be the first to have it. Seadra, use Hyperbeam!"

The Seadra looked at her, but did not do the attack.

The blue-eyed gym leader frowned and repeated. "Seadra, Hyperbeam now!"

The Pokémon hesitated, but eventually did exactly as instructed.

Sonic splashed to the surface with the owl's help for the millionth time, spitting out the cold water that somehow always found its way into his mouth. "Th—Th—This is why I h—h—h—hate water," he muttered through a chattering jaw to the bird that so far was the only thing keeping him from sinking to the bottom of the lake. "It's c—c—c—c—cold and w—w—wet and there's n—n—never an—any end!"

"Hoothoot," his companion agreed tiredly.

Sonic wasn't all about complaints, though. In one way, the water was a good thing. It soothed the burning and itching from the hornets and made the swelling go down. But he still hated being in it.

Sonic wiped the water from his eyes and glanced at the shore that they couldn't seem to get to…

And saw something he did not expect to find in this world.

"Hey, it's a human!" he said with tired excitement.

The owl looked too, and suddenly seemed to have a lot of energy. "HOOTHOOT!" it shouted, frantically flapping and trying to get the attention of the human.

Finally, to Sonic's relief, it seemed to work. The human sat up and pulled out a little hand-held machine of some kind, then looked at both of them and smiled. She stood and said something to one of her pets, then pulled out a red and white ball from her pack.

_What's with the ball? _Sonic wondered.

When the seahorse-dragon-looking-thing suddenly turned to them, unease replaced Sonic's relief. _What's going on?_

And then a sudden beam of bright light exploded from out of nowhere in front of the seahorse and shot towards the two companions.

"What the—?" Sonic started, but was cut off as the light connected with him square in the chest. His breath was knocked out of him as the beam delivered what felt like a tremendously powerful kick to his abdomen, and he was thrown through the air and away from the owl that held him afloat. He hit the water again and sank beneath the surface immediately.

Sonic opened his eyes and the water stung them. He noticed a small round shadow doing circles around the surface where he had gone under, but didn't have the time or energy to wonder what it was. He tried to pump his legs, to put to use the weeks of attempted swim-training from Tails, but he found that he was practically unable to move, due to the shocking blow from the beam of light. His lungs burned, empty of all air from the impact, and he sank further and further… Finally unable to keep the water out any longer, he opened his mouth and let it gush into his lungs, releasing the last bubble of air that he had between his cheeks. His eyes closed, and the last thought he had was: _I lied…THIS is why I hate the water…_

Misty stood on the shore with a smile on her face, waiting for the Pokémon to resurface so she could finish the capture. After a few seconds, though, she started to worry. And why was that Hoothoot flying in frantic circles directly above where the new Pokémon had gone under?

Her thoughts were interrupted when she felt a tap on her leg and she looked down to see Psyduck staring back at her.

"Psyduck!" it said forcefully, pointing to the spot in the water where ripples were still forming.

"Is something wrong?" she asked it.

"Psy aye aye."

A thought popped into her head and she asked Psyduck, "Can water Pokémon drown?"

The Psyduck just stared at her and she looked back at the Hoothoot, trying to make sense of what was happening. The blue Pokémon still had not surfaced, and the unease continued to grow in the pit of her stomach. She felt that her Pokémon were uneasy as well. And then suddenly, without even thinking about it, Misty kicked off her shoes and ran into the water, diving when the water was deep enough.

She resurfaced directly below the Hoothoot a few seconds later. "Is that thing in trouble?" she asked.

"HOOTHOOTHOOTHOOTHOOTHOOTHOOT!!!!!!!"

Needing no further motivation, she dove again, shooting through the water like a bullet and searching for the cobalt Pokémon. In a moment, her Seadra and Starmie were joining in the search. Just then, a single bubble of air floated up in front of Misty and she peered into the darkness of the water. Finally, after what seemed like forever, she made out the odd shape of the Pokémon she suddenly felt responsible for. It took her a few more seconds to reach it, and as soon as she did, she wrapped her arms around the limp creature and started for the surface.

With the help of her Pokémon, she reached it in a few moments; the blue animal still sagging in her arms. She held onto Seadra with one hand and the new Pokémon with the other as her faithful friend pulled them both to the nearest shore, which was opposite from where she started from. The Hoothoot landed beside her as she dragged the cobalt creature onto the shore.

_Ohno!ohno!ohno!ohno!ohno!ohno!ohno! _she thought desperately as she knelt beside the unmoving animal. _What do I do now?_

The Hoothoot answered for her as it suddenly jumped onto the Pokémon's abdomen and drove its feet into its chest as hard as it could.

Misty jumped, startled, when the blue creature's eyes snapped open and it gasped, then gagged and coughed up more water than Misty thought to be possible. She helped it roll onto its stomach to make the flow of water come more easily, but then sat back, not sure of what else to do. When the blue creature had finally cleared its lungs, it collapsed again for a moment before stirring.

Sonic the Hedgehog opened his eyes slowly, almost certain he was dead, and blinked at what he saw. He was staring into the red eyes of his friend the owl, but hadn't he just been underwater? Had he not just been drowning?

He had started to push himself up when a voice behind him spoke.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Startled, he whipped around to face the red-haired girl with bright blue eyes. He shifted until he was seated cross-legged in front of her.

"Um…yeah, I guess so," he said.

She looked surprised. "You can talk?"

Sonic just smiled. He (and every other Mobian, with the exception of Eggman) seemed to have that effect on humans. He remembered when Chris had dragged him out of the pool on that night that seemed so long ago…which brought up a question.

"Hey," Sonic said, "how did I get out of the water? Did you…?"

The girl turned red. "I'm sorry. That was my fault in the first place. I didn't realize that Pokémon could drown, and when you didn't come back up—"

Sonic cut her off. "Whoa, _Pokémon_?"

She stared at him blankly. "Um…yeah…you know…Pokémon."

The hedgehog laughed and stood up. "I don't know what you're talking about."

The girl stood as well, but continued to stare at him. "…You don't know what a Pokémon is," she said, trying for any clarification.

He shrugged. "Maybe you can explain it to me some other time. Right now, I gotta go find my friends. Thanks for the help. I'm Sonic, by the way."

She blinked, finally breaking out of her stupor. "Uh…I'm Misty. And it wasn't a problem at all…It was really the Hoothoot…"

He nodded, making a mental note of her name and face, then turned to the bird. "Is that your name, buddy?" he asked with a smile.

Misty blinked at him.

He turned to her and gave her his signature thumbs-up. "Thanks again, Misty. Really, I wouldn't be here now if it weren't for you and my new friend here. I'll see you around."

Before Misty had a chance to respond, the creature was gone in a flash of blue and she was left wondering if any of that encounter had just happened.

"PSYDUCK!" a scream sounded from the other side of the river and she turned, seeing her Psyduck waving for her to come back and get it.

She debated with herself whether or not to leave it there, but then she remembered that her shoes and pack were on the other side as well and she dove back into the water for the swim to the other shore.

**A/N: Forgive me if I messed up on the Beedrill part of this. I don't actually know much about Pokémon and had to Google Beedrill and Seadra and even Hoothoot! Lemme know if I can fix something. I won't mind.**


	6. One Down, But How Many More?

**Finally here it is! I'm SO sorry for the unscheduled long wait…my excuse is homework, writer's block, writer's explosion (when you suddenly have so many ideas that you can't stop), more homework (I had a lot this month), the FLAPA (French Language Arts Proficiency Assessment [I'm in French immersion]), the start of two other stories, a vow to not do this chapter until I finished one for one of my other fics (yeah…didn't happen), family weekends, babysitting, more homework, etc. Here it is anyways…it's my longest chapter so far. If it seems a little rushed, it's cuz it was. But I tried to keep it…well, not rushed. **

**Very big THANKS to Shippo's Ramen for providing me with a certain team's slogan. Without him/her, some of the humour in this chapter would have been lost. THANK YOU SHIPPO!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon and/or Sonic related people/places.**

Chapter 6

One Down…How Many More?

Sonic had slowed down to a jog when Hoothoot had begun to shed its feathers and was now following the bird's lead. He didn't mind, since it seemed to know where it was going.

"How much longer until we find my friends?" the hedgehog asked.

"Hoot," it said simply.

Sonic sighed, not bothering to try to decipher the creature's meanings. He knew by now that it wasn't going to work out for him, and that trying would only frustrate him. He didn't mind at first, but after meeting that girl and having a chance to talk to someone intelligent enough to talk back, he wished the owl could say something besides "Hoot hoot".

"Hoot, hoo hoot hoot."

There it goes again.

Sonic looked up at it to find it stopped in mid-air and turned to look at him. He was about to ask what was wrong, when he heard something.

"I TOLD YOU TO BACK OFF!!!!!!!!!" yelled an unmistakable familiar voice.

Sonic smiled. _Knuckles_.

"AND _YOU_!!!" he shouted again, obviously directed at someone or something else. "CALL OFF YOUR STUPID PET BEFORE I RIP IT APART!!!!"

Sonic grabbed Hoothoot and took off in the direction of the shouting and they were there in a matter of milliseconds, standing at the edge of a field in which the red echidna Knuckles and a purple-haired boy stood. Knuckles was redder than ever, swatting at bright pink floating clown-looking thing that was miming his every move while the human stood coolly a short distance away. Also in the field was a short orange-ish-brown beat-up-looking monkey with…_fire on its butt???_

Sonic blinked and rubbed his eyes, but the fire was still there. However, the monkey didn't seem to notice or care, as though it were completely natural for flames to be licking at its rear.

"Use Flamewheel, Chimchar," the purple-haired human said to the monkey.

"I swear, if you try it—" the crimson echidna warned, but the human ignored.

"Now, Chimchar," he ordered.

Sonic watched the monkey give Knuckles an apologetic look before jumping into and spinning in the air, creating a wheel of fire with its butt. To his horror, the ring of flame began a speedy roll towards his red buddy, leaving a trail of smouldering grass in its wake. Knuckles started to dodge, but Sonic knew he was too slow to get out of the way in time. So the hedgehog decided to step in.

Leaving the owl under the cover of the trees, Sonic sprang forward, too fast for the wind to whistle in his ears, and tackled his friend. The blue blur collided with Knuckles with enough force to send them both flying a safe fifteen feet out of the way. Both were back on their feet in a moment; Knuckles angry, Sonic his usual care-free self.

"Heya, Knux!" the hedgehog said casually. "You find some trouble?"

Knuckles blinked at him. "…Sonic? What are you doing here?" He looked over his cobalt friend critically, noticing the small swollen spots all over his body. He also noticed the smell. "What happened to you? And why do you stink so bad?" He plugged his nose, and the pink thing did the same.

Sonic shrugged. "Long story. It involved giant hornets and a drooling mushroom. You get used to the smell. What about you? Who's your friend?"

"The pink thing that copies my every movement? That is NOT my friend. It's an annoyingly cute floating freak that only says 'mime', but never talks unless I do!"

Sure enough, all the while Knuckles was talking, the pink clown spoke in unison with him, saying, "Mime mime mime mime mime."

Knuckles was about to say something else, but he was didn't have the chance to because the purple-haired boy interrupted.

"So you're not the only one," he said to Knuckles with a cold voice. "Fine then, I'll just get two instead." He turned to his monkey again. "Chimchar, finish this with Scratch."

Sonic waited as the monkey ran towards him and Knuckles and spin-dashed it away with ease when it was close enough, being careful not to hurt it too bad. The animal seemed okay, but it didn't look like it would out up much of a fight for a little while, due to the strange black swirls that appeared in its eyes. Knuckles, however, had other things on his mind.

With the grace of an elephant, the echidna marched straight up to the purple haired boy, who still stood as though he were the most powerful being in the world (reminding Sonic a lot of a certain ebony hedgehog). Knuckles stopped two feet in front of the human, who looked down at him coolly.

"You know what?" Knuckles said angrily, then his voice turned to a shout. "I DON'T LIKE YOU!!!" With that, the infuriated anthromorph drew back his fist, then shot it out and connected with the human's nose, all the while the pink clown was following his every movement.

The boy was sent flying back a few feet from the impact and blood began pouring from his nose immediately. "You broke my nose!" he shouted angrily at Knuckles.

"I'll break more than that next time, punk!"

Sonic couldn't help but laugh. Even trapped on another world, Knuckles would always be Knuckles…maybe a _little_ more violent, but still Knuckles.

His friend turned to face him. "What are _you_ laughing at?" he demanded of Sonic.

"Just you, Knux," the cobalt animal replied, still laughing. "What say we blow this popsicle stand?"

The human on the ground stood back up, wiping the blood from his nose onto his blue sweater. "No you don't," he said, shooting Knuckles a death-glare. "Not until I catch at least one of you!"

Thus saying, he pulled a red and white ball from his pocket and pressed a button on the front, making it grow so that it filed his hand.

_Again with those balls…_ Sonic thought. _What do they mean…?_ "Hey Knuckles, watch it!" he shouted as the human threw the ball at his friend.

It bounced off of Knuckles' head, opened, and Sonic watched in horror as his red companion disappeared in a beam of red light into the ball. His mouth dropped open.

"…Knuckles?" he said worriedly as the human grinned with triumph.

"Your friend is mine, now," he started to say, "and you—"

He was cut off as the ball on the ground suddenly burst open and Knuckles re-materialized in the exact same spot, in the exact same position. The echidna looked around, wondering why it had suddenly gone black for a couple seconds before he could see everything again.

"No!" the boy shouted. "That should have worked!"

Knuckles turned to him, this time with a death-glare all his own. "Do you have a death-wish, punk?" he asked, his voice hard as steel. "I told you to LEAVE ME ALONE!"

"I'm a Pokémon Trainer!" the boy shouted back. "I don't listen to you; _YOU _listen to _ME_!"

Sonic and Knuckles exchanged confused glances. _There's that word again…Pokémon… _Sonic thought. _I wonder what it means? _

"Not today, I don't," Knuckles replied, decided whatever he meant by 'Pokémon Trainer' didn't matter.

"Hey, Chuckles," Sonic said.

Knuckles and his pink companion turned to look at him.

"Let's get out of here and find the others, kay?" He wanted to get his friend out of there before he caused any more physical damage to this human boy with purple hair.

Shooting one last glare at the human, Knuckles finally turned to his friend/rival and nodded. Sonic grinned flashed to the echidna's side, then grabbed his arm (when the clown realized what he was doing, it grabbed onto Knuckles' head) and took off again, once again leaving a confused human in his wake.

The two stopped under the cover of the trees, where Sonic and Hoothoot were reunited. "Hey buddy, told ya I'd be back," Sonic said to the owl with a smile, in a somewhat better mood now that he had found Knuckles. He turned to his friend. "Knux, this is my new bud Hoothoot. Hoothoot, this is Knuckles."

"Uhh… Hello," Knuckles said uncomfortably upon being introduced to a small round owl that seemingly only had one leg.

It smiled at him widely. "Hoot!" it said happily from the ground where it stood.

"Hoothoot helped me find you," Sonic informed his red companion.

"Its name is Hoothoot?" Knuckles asked, swatting absently at the pink thing that was still mimicking him.

He shrugged. "That's what Misty said it was. And that's all it says."

"Who's Misty?"

"Just a girl that almost killed me."

"Oh." Knuckles regarded the owl, and then the clown curiously. "What do you think these things are, anyways?"

"How am I supposed to know? I just call `em natives and run with it. They probably wonder about us even more than we do of them."

"Yeah…I guess you're right," Knuckles said, still looking troubled.

Sonic noticed this and frowned. "What's up, Knux?"

The echidna hesitated. "…Never mind. It's nothing," he said, obviously forcing a smile. He noticed that Sonic looked troubled, too. "What's _your _problem."

"…I'm worried."

"About what?"

"Shadow."

"Oh…" Knuckles had completely forgotten about Shadow, though how, he was unsure. Shadow was the reason they were in this unfamiliar territory in the first place. He was the one who had teleported them all there, seemingly accidentally. He was the one who had evidently fallen for one of Eggman's tricks. He was the whole cause behind what was happening to them all right now! But still…

Knuckles had to agree with Sonic. He was worried, too.

"Hoothoot," the little round owl interrupted his thoughts. The two anthromorphs looked down to see it standing between them both, looking up impatiently.

"Sorry Hoothoot," Sonic said with a smile. All signs of worry faded from his face, but Knuckles knew his friend better than that. "What's up, bud?"

"Hoot hoot!" it replied, jumping up and down while fluttering its wings.

"You know where some more of my friends are?"

"Hoot!" It launched itself into the air and hovered, waiting.

Sonic turned to Knuckles. "You up for this?"

"Are you kidding? The sooner we find everyone, the sooner we can find a way back to Mobius!" Knuckles replied. "I was ready two hours ago!"

"Which way we headin?" Sonic asked Hoothoot.

The owl gestured with its head northeast.

"It is a long ways?"

"Hoot," the bird replied, nodding.

Sonic smiled and turned to Knuckles. "You up for a run?"

Knuckles nodded. "If it means getting us out of this dimension and back to Mobius, count me in."

Sonic wasn't listening to Knuckles, though; he was too distracted by the floating pink clown that was still following his every movement and saying in sync with him, "Mime mime mime mimemime mime mime mimemimemime mime mime mime mime, mime mime _miiiimmmeee_ mime."

"_Soooonnniiiicccc_," Knuckles said, waving his hand in front of his friend's face.

"Huh? Wha—?" Sonic asked, snapping back to reality. "Oh, sorry Knux. I wasn't listening."

The echidna sighed, muttering, "Could Tails have found me? _Nooo_, it _had_ to be the hedgehog with the attention span of a toddler," before repeating his earlier statement.

"Great," Sonic said. "Grab your pet."

"It's not my pet," Knuckles said, trying to pull the clown off his face after it heard mention of leaving.

"And it's not my problem," Sonic replied as Hoothoot flew into his arms. "Ready?"

Before Knuckles could answer, the hedgehog took off, going northwest at two hundred miles per hour.

It took him a few seconds to realize he was going the wrong way.

It took another few seconds to realize he'd left Knuckles behind.

**In yet **_**another**_** part of the world**

"I'm hungry," the purple-blue haired adult complained from the corner of the hot-air balloon basket, holding his rumbling stomach weakly.

"I hear ya," agreed the beige cat with the golden oval on its forehead.

"Me three," added the woman with long red hair that curled at the end.

"Wobbuffet."

The four in the balloon basket inhaled and performed a collective sigh, each longing for the same thing: food.

"And I miss my little Mimey," James continued in a whine, sighing again and feeling very depressed.

"Well, maybe if ya hadn't yelled at `im, it'd still be around," the talking Meowth said.

"It'll come back. Stop complaining," Jessie ordered sharply, as was her nature.

James just sighed again.

Meowth stood from his corner opposite of James and peered over the side of the hot-air balloon. "Y'know, that little Mime Jr. is probably on its way back here now."

"Woooobbuffet," the blue blob agreed, joining Meowth's side.

"I can't believe our luck," Jessie said from the opposite side of the basket. "We've been chasing the twerp's Pikachu for years, but we can't seem to get a hold of it; whenever we come across a Legendary Pokémon, we always end up helping the same twerps get rid of the eviller people after them; we've been trying for years to please the Boss, but no matter what we do, we always end up messing everything up; we never have any food, even though we're always hungry; and now Mime Jr. has run away from you, James."

"Our lives are sugar cubes in a whirlpool," Meowth added.

"Why do we even bother, Jessie?" James asked. "I don't know about you, but I'm sick of this life. It's the same thing all the time: we follow the twerps; steal their Pokémon on occasion, only to have them stolen back right from under our noses; then Team Rocket goes blasting off again. Haven't you ever wondered if there's more to life than just Team Rocket? Why do we have to be the bad guy?"

She thought about this for a moment, then replied with, "Because _somebody _has to be. The spot of the good guy is filled by the twerps."

James wasn't satisfied. "But haven't you ever wanted to try something new?"

"Like what? We get our shot at being the hero whenever we meet up with a Legendary—"

"That's not what I mean," James interrupted. "I mean a different career, a different lifestyle. Haven't you ever wanted to settle down, Jessie? Haven't you wondered what it would be like to have kids of ou—your own, watching them grow up to become Pokémon Masters?"

"Or losers like us," Meowth stated, adding its two cents worth.

"Wobbuffet," the blue thing chimed in.

"…No, not really," Jessie confessed, turning to look at James for a moment before reverting her attention to the forest beyond the balloon.

There was a moment's awkward silence.

"…I've always wanted to be a ballerina," Meowth said…a little too openly. Jessie and James stared at him.

"Wobbuffet!"

"Wobbuffet wants to be an opera singer," the Pokémon translated.

James opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off when Jessie suddenly exclaimed, "Hey! Look at that!"

In a moment, Pokémon and people were crowded on Jessie's side of the balloon basket, causing it to tilt. Jessie was leaned over the side, pointing to something on the ground a ways ahead.

"What is it?" James asked, peering at the orange creature on the earth below.

"I think it's a Pokémon," Meowth said, squinting at the two-tailed animal. "But I don't recognize it."

"Do you think it's a new one?" Jessie asked.

James pulled out a Pokédex and pointed it in the creature's direction.

"…Species unidentifiable," the automated voice announced.

James closed the Pokédex and shoved it pack into his pocket, then noticed Jessie and Meowth staring at him. "What?"

"Since when d'ya got a Pokédex?" Meowth asked.

James shifted. "I…Uh…I've always had one…" he said sheepishly, knowing what was coming.

Meowth stared at him another moment before it exploded. "Ya had a Pokédex this _whole time_!?!" it demanded. "What about _me_? Did ya not trust me? _I _was yer Pokédex! Why would ya even consider—?"

"Shut up, Meowth!" Jessie hissed, much to James' relief. "Look!"

Everyone did and saw the creature looking up at them. After a few seconds, it jumped into the air and began rotating its two tails like a propeller, somehow using them to fly.

"Incredible!" James declared as the creature began its route towards them. "Any ideas as to what it is?"

"I dunno," Meowth said, "but whatever Pokémon it is, I got an idea."

It and Jessie exchanged glances, and Jessie beamed. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Oh no…" James muttered, knowing _exactly_ what she was thinking.

"Da Boss'll be so pleased wid us if we catch dat Pokémon for `im!"

"I can see it now!" Jessie exclaimed, stars lighting her eyes.

Then the fantasy began.

"I knew you three were worth keeping around," Meowth said in its best impersonation of the Boss.

"How would you like to be promoted to Vice-Presidents of Team Rocket?" Jessie continued in an impression that was somewhat worse than Meowth's.

The two crowded together in front of James, their eyes bright as their fantasy continued. "We'd love to!" they shouted in unison, beaming ridiculously.

"Only if Team Rocket doesn't go blasting off again," James said, rolling his eyes and turning back to the fox Pokémon, who was now halfway to the balloon, but still sixty feet away. Meowth and Jessie finally snapped back to reality and sprang into action.

"Target acquired!" Meowth announced.

Jessie turned to James with a smile. "Ready?" she asked.

"As if I have a choice," he replied dryly.

She turned back to Meowth. "Fire."

Tails had been wandering around for two hours straight; ever since he had landed on this unfamiliar territory. He was alone when he'd arrived. _We must have all been separated and scattered across this world, _he had thought upon arrival. Immediately, he'd begun his search for his friends. But so far, he hadn't found any sign of them, or any other intelligent life here.

That was when he saw it:

A giant cat-faced hot-air balloon was headed in his direction. Only intelligent life forms could build one, he knew, and therefore hope had flooded him. He was even happier when he saw that there were humans on board: a girl with long, dark red hair, and a man with purple hair. Both wore white outfits with a large red 'R' in the center of the shirt, and Tails wondered if they were some kind of rescue party. Not that it mattered; the only important thing was that he had found humans, who could in turn, possibly help him find his friends.

Tails did the only logical thing there was to do. Using his skilled tails, he began a flight towards the humans, a grin plastered on his face. He was like a little kid going to a candy store, except that in his case, it was more comparable for him to be on his way to an electrics shop. Either way, his day had just been made.

That is, until the humans did something he should have seen coming. When he reached the point fifty feet from the balloon, he noticed that there was a third intelligent party (there was also a stupid-looking blue blob that looked as though it were in a constant salute) in the basket; a cat that looked remarkably like the picture on the balloon. This cat moved so that he was standing behind and looking into a scope of some kind that was pointed in his direction. Tails stopped his approach and watched the crowd scramble around, an uneasy feeling creeping into the pit of his stomach.

And then it happened. A metal gun-looking thing popped out off the bottom of the basket and shot a rope net directly at Tails, catching him off guard. It wrapped around him, hindering his flight, and he abruptly began plummeting towards the earth, screaming incoherently.

A sixty foot drop and a few tree branches later, and Tails was sitting on the forest floor, scratched, bruised, tangled in the net, and shaking with fright. What was happening? Were the people government operatives trained to track down and capture alien threats? But Tails wasn't a threat; he was just a little genius anthromorphic fox. What did they want with him?

After a minute of struggling with the heavy net and getting nowhere, a shadow fell over the area where he sat. He looked up and saw that the balloon was had stopped at a seventy degree angle of elevation above him, and he heard the two humans inside arguing.

"Do we have to?" the purple-haired adult whined.

"Of course we do!" the woman replied, annoyed. "It's our signature!"

"But it's a Pokémon," he stated.

_Pokémon? _Tails wondered.

"It doesn't matter," she said. "We're still causing chaos."

The man huffed, but finally agreed. "Fine."

At that, the two humans jumped out of the balloon basket and landed on a branch. Tails watched in confusion as they began some sort of choreographed routine that he guessed they used a lot. It was the girl who started.

"Listen; is that a voice I hear?" she said, adding a lot of expression into it.

"It speaks to me loud and clear," the man added, somewhat less expressionless. Tails guessed that he really didn't want to be doing this.

"On the wind!" the girl exclaimed.

"Past the stars," he said, bored.

"In your ear!" the cat continued.

_Hey, it can talk! _Tails thought. _Maybe it's from our world…?_

The girl took it up. "Bringing crisis at a breakneck pace!"

"Dashing hope,"—the man sighed—"and putting fear in its place."

"A rose by any other name's just as sweet."

"I never understood that line," the man said, obviously breaking the pattern.

The woman turned on him viciously. "It rhymes! Stop interrupting and say your line!" she hissed.

He sighed again. "When everything's worse, our work is complete."

"Jessie," said the girl.

"James," he said in monotone.

The cat piped up. "Meowth, now dat's a name!

"Putting the do-gooders in their place," the girl—whose name was obviously Jessie—continued.

"Team Rocket," said James.

Then all of them shouted, "We're in your face!"

"_Wooo_bbuffet!" the light-blue blob concluded from inside the basket.

James sighed, looking depressed. "It's not the same without the little 'Mime mime' at the end…"

"Oh, shut up."

With that, the girls swung down off the branches of the trees, only somewhat gracefully, before she slipped and fell the remaining ten feet onto her tailbone.

"Ow!" she cried out, and despite his fear, Tails giggled. The girl whipped around to glare at him. "What do you think you're laughing at?" she demanded.

His laughter ceased immediately and was replaced with tremors of fright. "I-I-I'm sorry!" he said quickly, trying not to cross the scary woman. He was sure that she was angry enough now that it wouldn't matter anyways, though.

Instead, however, her expression changed from anger to shock. "It talks!" she exclaimed to her companions as they joined her on the forest floor, pointing at the kitsune.

"Really?" James suddenly seemed interested, stepping close to get a better look at the orange creature.

Tails shivered in fear and shrunk away from the man as best he could.

James crouched down so that he was face-to-face with him. "It looks frightened, Jessie," he said, his expression softening.

"Of course it does!" the woman snapped back. "It's trying to gain your sympathy, in hopes that you'll release it. If you were a Pokémon trapped in a net surrounded by strangers, you'd act frightened, too!"

_Again with that word_, Tails thought.

"It's okay, little guy," James said softly, keeping his eyes on the cowering creature. "We're not going to hurt you."

"Y-You're not?" it asked timidly, barely above a whisper.

James shook his head.

"Don't talk to it, James!" Jessie commanded.

"Why not?"

"Because it's creepy!"

"Hey!" Meowth protested, and Jessie turned to it.

"Nothing against you, Meowth."

The cat crossed its arms. "Humph."

James continued to regard the two-tailed animal with interest. "There's something different about this one, though, Jessie…I don't know what it is, but it's not like any Pokémon I've ever seen before."

"Would you stop staring at that thing and get it in the balloon already?" the woman demanded, completely ignoring James' statement.

Sighing, James grabbed the net holding the Pokémon and slung it over his shoulder, the creature whimpering in fear and struggling to release itself as he did. James felt bad for this animal; they were taking it unwilling out of its habitat, just so it could be presented to their Boss as a sign of their significance. It was cruel, really; what they did for a living. And even with all their hard work, could he ever think of a time when it had paid off? Nope. He was living a life that had no point…and yet, it was the only thing he knew how to do.

The sound of snapping twigs in the trees nearest the trio pulled James out of his thoughts, and he turned in the direction from which it came. "Did you hear that, Jessie?" he asked his companion.

"Hear what?" she said distractedly as she clambered up the rope ladder that Wobbuffet had somehow managed to throw over the side of the basket for them.

James listened again, keeping his eyes on the dark area of the forest. "…Never mind."

Jessie looked down at him. "Well then, what's taking so long? Bring that Pokémon up here so we can take it to the Boss and get our promotion."

"You and your promotion," James muttered, walking over to the ladder. He had barely started up it when a small, scared voice spoke from his back.

"Please," the two-tailed fox Pokémon whispered. "Please let me go."

"I'm sorry, little guy," James replied, "but it's out of my hands."

He grabbed a rung of the ladder and pulled himself up onto it, still holding tight to the net with one hand. But before he had a chance to climb up to the balloon, a low growl sounded from amongst the trees, and a second later, a large gold-white animal pounced out of the shadows and onto James; knocking him off the ladder and onto the ground. James dropped the net holding the orange fox as he was tackled by the golden one, screaming for Jessie and Meowth.

Tails watched the scene with horror. As if it wasn't bad enough he was being captured by the government and labelled a 'Pokémon', whatever that was; now they were all being attacked by a very beautiful, very scary wild animal of some kind that had nine stunning red and gold tails. He hit the ground with a hard _thud_ when the beast tackled James and he now watched wide-eyed as it stood over him, yipping and growling in the man 's face, its red eyes gleaming with anger. As Tails looked closer, though, he realized that it wasn't just any beast; no, this beast was most definitely a large species of wild fox. While it was certainly NOT and anthromorph like himself, it did seem to possess a deep understanding of many things. He felt an abrupt connection between himself and the animal in question, and he suddenly no longer felt so afraid. He knew that, somehow, this fox had come to help him.

"Tales!" the creature growled, and Tails' ears perked up.

_Did that fox just say my name?_

Everything after that happened so fast, Tails couldn't even tell what was going on. He saw Meowth cannonball from halfway up the ladder towards the awesome creature, with its claws extended, but after that, Tails was too scared to look. He curled up in a ball, hugging his tails to his body and covering his ears, whimpering only slightly, in fear that too much sound would draw the attention of the ferocious animal.

Even with his ears covered, however, he still could hear everything that was happening. He heard James scream, a few grunts of pain, a snarl (presumably from the fox), more screams, a dull _thump_, more screams, the unmistakable roar of fire, a _pop_, and finally the war was over.

James sat sprawled in the basket, along with Jessie, Meowth, and Wobbuffet. His clothes were singed and his face was covered in soot and dirt, but he otherwise had somehow managed to remain relatively unharmed. While he looked like crap, he couldn't help but feel a little satisfaction with himself. "I told you this would happen," he said, hiding his smugness very well. "Do you know what this means?"

Jessie and Meowth sighed, and the three of them said together, "Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again."

Tails reopened his eyes in time to see the hot air balloon spinning off in circles over the horizon, somehow disappearing in a flash of light once it reached a certain distance, with the people inside shouting something about rocket boosters or something that he couldn't make out. He also found the golden fox, which was considerable larger than him, standing over him and eyeing him curiously.

"Uh…Hello," Tails said nervously.

The fox tilted its head to one side, as if contemplating what to do, before leaned over and bit through the rope net holding him.

Before the stunned anthromorph could react, however, the golden animal bent its neck over him and latched onto the back of his neck. Tails let out a startled yelp as he felt its teeth close in on his flesh and fur when the animal lifted his small body, and he was surprised to find that the action didn't hurt. It was definitely weird, but not painful. If anything, it tickled slightly.

"What—?" Tails started, but the question was ripped from his throat as the golden fox made a sudden dash in the direction from which it came, at which time Tails screamed and his hands flew to his eyes. There they stayed until his horror ride was over.

**A/N: so now I feel like I owe you all an explanation to my statement at the end of the last chapter. The reason I do not know much about Pokémon is because my dad wanted us to have nothing to do with it when it first came out, on account of kids in my school getting into fights over the cards, which is understandable (my dad didn't want us to be some of those kids). When the fad died down, we couldn't watch it and still can't because we don't have cable or satellite or high-speed internet access (yet!).**

**I still chose to write this story, though, because I suddenly found myself with the inspiration for it. Besides, I know **_**enough**_** about Pokémon to do this fic…there's just so many different Pokémon that it's impossible to know everything about every one of them. If I get really stumped on a Pokémon or an area, I'll consult with one of my best friends (who loves it) or with one of the few people who have kindly offered their help. Please don't be mad at me for writing about something I'm not educated in…but if you knew me at all, you'd know that I HAVE to write when I have to inspiration to.**

**One last thing: this chapter was about the boys, the next will be about the girls (I think) and then (hopefully) back to a certain ebony hedgehog.**


	7. This Ain't No Vacation

**Oh my gosh! I'm **_**SSSOOOOO**_** sorry for the long wait :( I got busy, and couldn't get it done, plus I was having the hardest time with a certain bat's part (if Rouge is a little OOC, I apologize). But if it's any consolation, this chapter ended up being twelve pages long, which is two pages more than chapter 6. Sorry it's so long… and I also put up a one-shot fic in the meantime called Ageless…check it out if ya wanna!**

**I'd like to give special thanks this chapter to Shippo's Ramen and Silhouette the Daemon-Wolf, who provided me with information needed to make this chapter what it is. And also Google Xp**

**And I thank all my reviewers out there. I'm currently at 73 reviews in 6 chapters, which A: boosts my confidence, B: makes me want to write faster, and C: makes this my favourite story to write. I never **_**dreamed **_**that so many would like any of my stories so much…**

**Disclaimer: Do we **_**really**_** have to go over this AGAIN?**

Chapter 7

This Ain't No Vacation

She wasn't complaining.

After all, who would complain about being on a tropical island with coconut cups and warm sun, and a sandy beach with clear blue water? It was the _perfect_ vacationing area. There was only one problem:

THIS WASN'T A VACATION!

The coconut cups were only possible if _she_ cut the coconuts (which, by the way, is very hard to do when your only tool is a massive hammer), there was no escape from the boiling sun, the sand was scalding hot and burned her toes as she walked, and the water went on and on and on in every direction, giving no sign of help or land.

But worst of all, Sonic the Hedgehog was nowhere to be found.

Amy Rose paced back and forth on the beach anxiously, peering over the massive span of ocean to see if she could find any trace of land, boat, airplane…

Nothing. Absolutely nothing but blue skies and water.

"Shadow, what did you drag us into?" she mumbled to herself begrudgingly, then sighed and sat against the trunk of a tree whose coconuts were too high for her to reach. _How did this happen? _she wondered, feeling her loneliness tugging at her. _How did I get here? One second Shadow was glowing, and the next—_

The next thing she new, she was on this blasted island, all alone. No Sonic, no Tails, no Knuckles, Rouge, or Shadow. Besides that, there seemed to be no sign of any intelligent life occupying the island, though she had heard some creepy sounds coming from inside the dense forest that grew there when she had first arrived at least an hour ago. It felt like a lot longer than that. She found herself incredibly angry with Shadow: How could he have allowed himself to be tricked by Eggman? How dare he involve her and the others against their will? It wasn't like there was a big sign outside of Freedom HQ that said 'IDIOTS WELCOME'. What had gotten into him?

_But…It wasn't really his fault, _she thought, feeling a pang of guilt tugging at her heartstrings. _I mean, Knuckles does the same thing all the time. We don't freak out at him because of it. Why is Shadow any different?_

"Because he _claims _to be the 'Ultimate Lifeform'," she muttered to herself, forgetting all guilt that had come over her. To her, this incident was just proof that even the Ultimates have their weaknesses, and maybe this would knock Shadow off his "I'm better than you because I was made in a lab in space" complex.

The sudden sound of snapping twigs in the forest behind her caused Amy to nearly jump out of her skin, pushing her resentment towards Shadow away for the moment. She was on her feet in a second, her Piko Piko hammer appearing in her hand with a _poof_, and facing the forest.

More snapping, mixed with a gentle swiping sound, and then the bushes and undergrowth at the edge of the forest crackled with movement. Amy gripped the handle of her hammer harder until her knuckles were white from the pressure and swallowed her fear, putting on her fiercest expression. "If you're trying to scare me, it's not working!" she shouted to the trees.

The ruckus ceased for a moment, and Amy peered into the darkness of the trees. A gasp escaped her when suddenly a pair of slanted white eyes popped from seemingly out of nowhere and glared at her. As she looked on, she realized there was a leaf green face behind the eyes, hidden well amongst the trees.

Amy relaxed a little upon discovering it was just an animal and not some pervert, but still gripped her hammer. She didn't like the look of this thing…

"Scyther!" the odd creature hissed at her from the trees.

Amy tilted her head slightly, confused as it seemed to focus on her red dress. "Do you like my dress?" she asked it warily.

All at once, the bug-looking creature jumped out of the trees and lunged at her, revealing its long, bladed hands. "SCYTHER!" it screamed, swiping at her angrily.

Amy let out a high-pitched cry of fear and narrowly jumped out of the way as the blades sliced through the air. She rolled back onto her feet and faced the giant green insect again with her hammer raised defensively. "You want some?" she demanded of the creature. "Well then, bring it on!"

She talked tough, but when it came down to it, she was scared out of her wits. What _was _this thing attacking her? And what did she do to make it so angry all of a sudden? Whatever it was, it must have really ticked it off!

The insect turned its head to look over its shoulder at her, its eyes flashing angrily. Amy tensed, a scowl on her face. Slowly, slowly…the creature turned.

"Scyther!" it screamed, whipping around suddenly and slashing at Amy's dress, barely nicking her side as she jumped out of the way. As she jumped, however, she thought she'd get her own hits it and swung her hammer into the side of the animal's head as she dodged its scissor hands.

The bug let out an unearthly scream as the Piko Piko hammer made contact, but from rage or pain, Amy couldn't tell.

_What made this thing so angry at me?_

That was all she had time to think before it swiped again, madly swinging its knives at her in no particular pattern. The weird thing about it was that it never made eye contact with her once, but rather seemed intent on destroying her dress….her red dress….

Amy swung her hammer again but the insect dodged, expecting it. It jumped back from her as glared hard before screaming again, "Scyther!" and suddenly, the green creature did something very unexpected and seemingly impossible…

In less than a second, the air around the hands of the insect glowed bright white before the bug whipped them downwards and two blade-shaped lights shot from the knives...and directly at Amy.

Time seemed to stand still as the blades of light rushed towards her. She saw the look of fury in the beast's eyes; fury that she did not understand. She watched the blades as they came closer…and closer…a million thoughts rushed through her mind, but above them all was her verbal cry for the only thing that could save her from whatever this bug had to dish out:

"_SOONNIIKKKUUUUU!!!!!!!!_"

She screwed her eyes shut and ducked behind her hammer, preparing for the worst.

Needless to say, Amy Rose was incredibly surprised to not feel any impact, but rather, she heard some sort of explosion, followed by a strong wind from the aftershock that threw her roughly to the ground. A bright purple-pink light shone through her eye lids. And then, there was silence.

Cautiously, Amy squinted her eyes open a crack, scared of what she might see. However, she was surprised, and somewhat startled, to find a curious pair of baby blue eyes staring back at her. "Mew?" came the soft, musical voice behind the eyes.

Amy blinked her eyes open and stared at the odd shaped creature. Standing slowly, she looked it up and down, taking in all its features: from its giant rabbit-shaped feet to its tiny, stubby, three-fingered hands, along with its triangle ears, round snout, and long, skinny tail that thickened at the end. It was very cute, especially with the fact that it was _pink_.

Amy finally peeled her eyes away from the pink creature long enough to notice the insect that had attacked her lying on the sand a short distance away with large black swirls in its eyes and a very odd expression on its face. Then the pink creature popped into her vision again.

"Mew mew!" it said, smiling brightly.

Amy glanced from it to the thing on the ground. "Did you do that?" she asked it quietly.

"Mew," it replied, nodding.

Amy smiled. "So you must be one tough little one, huh? You're pretty cute, too. Like me!"

"Mew mew, mew!" it said happily, floating to and fro in front of Amy. It swooped in close so its face was directly in hers. Its baby-blue eyes looked her over closely while Amy's green ones stared back at it.

"Mew!" it exclaimed so suddenly that Amy jumped. It moved in close to her, and before she could do anything to stop it, the creature grabbed her shoulder and began glowing.

Before Amy knew what was going on, there was a bright flash and she found herself and the odd animal in a different place; a meadow of some kind, brightly coloured by flowers and blue crystals that captured the suns rays and seemed to welcome her there. Looking around, she noticed the serenity of this peaceful place that felt like a world all its own. She also noticed that the air was thinner here. In the distance, she saw seven objects she assumed to be animals of some kind rising into the sky, each one leaving a brief trail of beautiful sparkles of red, white, green, sapphire, yellow, and purple in its wake. The animals each flew off in a different direction, disappearing in but a few seconds. The sight was the most amazing thing she had ever seen.

"Mew mew," a happy, sing-song voice said from behind her. Amy pulled her eyes from the breathtaking sight to see the somewhat-cat-like creature suspended in mid air as though swinging on a hammock, swaying back and forth contentedly with its tail curled above it cutely.

"What is this place?" the pink hedgehog asked her newfound companion, not really expecting an answer, due to the repetitive sound that seemed to be all the animal knew.

Sure enough, that was all she got. "Mew, mew, mew mew," it replied, floating up to her. It flew in close to her face so that it was only a few inches away, and Amy stared at it confusedly. Then, very suddenly, it shot out its hand and tapped her forehead, causing her to jump.

The animal put its stubby hands to its mouth and giggled, then began circling Amy, occasionally veering sharply away and then coming in closer. Amy giggled, too, realizing that her new friend was trying to play with her.

She waited until it swerved in close before suddenly reaching out and tagging it, then turning on her heel and rushing out into the field of wild flowers. The creature squealed in delight and took off after her, floating from side to side behind Amy until it caught up, at which point it veered upwards.

Amy glanced over her shoulder to find that her friend was no longer there, and she stopped, turning completely with a look of confusion. It was then that the pink animal decided to make its move and dropped onto Amy's head, its cute laughter sounding through the field. Amy squealed playfully and began running through the field with the creature still clinging to her, laughing openly. Finally, out of breath, she fell into the soft flowers and onto her back, looking at the cloudless sky and panting hard.

As she felt her muscles relaxing, she looked to her new friend, who had floated gracefully to the ground beside her and was laying in much the same manner. She smiled at it, and it smiled back.

"Mew mew," it sang, yawning.

"Mew…" Amy repeated, pondering the sound and its meaning. "That's all you say, isn't it?"

"Mew," it replied, snuggling close to her.

Amy smiled. "Alright then. I guess that's what I'll call you…Mew."

It nodded approvingly, closing its eyes.

Amy turned on her back again, placing her hands behind her head and closing her eyes, _Wait till my Sonikku hears about this place…he'll want to bring me on a date here for sure!_

Her eyes snapped open and she sat bolt upright, startling the poor pink animal nestled in beside her. "Sonic!" she practically screamed, climbing to her feet as the seriousness of her current situation settled in again. She took off across the field, running towards the horizon.

Mew giggled playfully and began chasing after her, thinking that she was playing again. After it tagged her, however, she didn't stop running. Not until she was at the very edge of the field….

….and the very edge of a cliff.

Skidding to a stop inches from the ledge, Amy stared at the rocks and trees so far below it wasn't funny. Feeling woozy, Amy backed up slowly until she was safely away from the edge, at which time she fell promptly onto her rear.

"Mew?" Mew said, moving in front of her face and staring with its bright blue eyes.

Amy was breathing hard, her eyes wide. "I have to find Sonic," she whispered to the creature. "I need to know if he's here…I need to know…that he's alright." Tears welled up in the corners of her eyes as the worst came to mind and she buried her face into her lap and sobbed quietly, trying to push the awful thoughts away.

Mew blinked at her, trying to find some way to comfort her new friend. It got an idea, and was gone in a flash. In another moment, it was back, holding in front of Amy a small branch with some berries hanging from it. "Mew mew!" it said happily, getting Amy's attention.

She looked up from her tear-stained red dress and regarded the berries and the bright blue eyes behind them, then shook her head. "I need to go, Mew," she said, standing. "I have to find my Sonikku." With that, she approached the edge of the cliff again and peered over, crawling on her hands and knees so she wouldn't lose her balance and fall off.

Mew, taking this as a sign that she wanted to play, promptly moved in behind Amy….

And pushed her off the cliff.

A quarter of a second was all it took for Amy Rose to begin screaming as she dropped through the air and towards the stony base of whatever mountain they were on. It also took only a quarter of a second for Mew to begin laughing so hard it was nearly rolling around in the air. After a few seconds of Amy's screaming, Mew decided it was time to retrieve its friend. It took only a second for it to teleport itself to the exact spot that Amy was, grab hold of her, and teleport them both back to the top of the mountain that was its current home.

Immediately when they had appeared back on top, Mew became hysterical with its giggles; rolling around gleefully in the sky while Amy sat in the fetal position among the flowers, unbelieving as to what her 'friend' had just done. Was it _psycho_? It didn't seem like Mew had meant any harm by it, but you don't just go _pushing _people off of _cliffs_!

Finally regaining her composure, Amy turned to the still-laughing creature. "Look, Mew," she said, trying to remain patient with it, "you can't do that again, okay? Even though you can teleport down to get me…" Her voice trailed off as a sudden realization hit her, and she snapped her fingers and leapt to her feet. "Mew!" she exclaimed, and its laughter ceased immediately. "You can teleport me to my Sonikku!"

Mew's face suddenly became very serious. "Mew mew," it said firmly, shaking its head.

"You _have _to!" Amy declared. "I can't stay here forever! I have to find my love!"

"Mew mew," it repeated, perhaps a little more firmly. Then its expression changed to that of playfulness again, and it floated around Amy, obviously trying to get her to play with it some more.

"No, Mew," she said, putting emphasis on her words. "I _have_ to find Sonic!"

Mew tilted its head at her, trying to figure out what a 'Sonic' was. "Mew mew, mew mew mew?" it asked curiously.

Amy sighed and shook her head, frustrated at her inability to communicate properly with the floating animal. "I HAVE TO FIND SONIC!" she yelled at it, her frustrations showing clearly.

"MEW!" the pink thing yelled back, very suddenly changing from cute to…rather frightening—so suddenly, in fact, that Amy fell backwards and landed with a hard thump on her rear for the second time in the last few minutes. Then, just as suddenly, it returned to its normal, happy and curious expression, and its voice returned to the sweet melodic resonance. "Mew, mew mew mew."

_It wants to play again, _she knew. _That must be why it brought me here; so that I could play with it. But… _She frowned. _But surely it must know that I'll have to leave eventually._

She stood and brushed herself off before turning again to Mew. "Look, Mew," she said calmly. "I can't stay here forever. I have people who need me, friends—"

"Mew!" Mew interrupted, smiling widely and pointing to itself. It began circling her again, trying to get her to play, no matter how much she protested.

Nope, she wasn't complaining; she was too busy trying to figure out a way to convince Mew to help her find Sonic.

**Meanwhile, in another, no so remote location**

Rouge, on the other hand, was complaining openly.

"Ugh, these boots are _not_ made for hiking!" the bat muttered to herself as she stumbled along the uneven and unpaved sorry excuse for a road. _Disaster area is more like it_, she thought bitterly.

No sooner had she finished the thought when the heel of her aforementioned footwear caught on a rock and twisted her left ankle out for under her. Instinctively taking all weight off her injured foot, Rouge promptly lost her footing on the rough terrain and fell on the seat of her spandex, _hard_.

The anthromorph sighed in agitation and exhaustion, allowing her ears to droop slightly—something she would not be caught dead doing if anybody else was around. Rouge the Bat _never _sulked in front of others. Especially boys. Especially _Shadow_.

She sighed again, this time in worry, and frowned. _Oh, Shadow. What happened to you?_

The thought swirled around in her mind, replaying the events that lead up to where she was now. Shadow had just finished boasting to Sonic how good the new Rings felt, then suddenly he was on the floor, screaming in pain. Perhaps that was the reason she was so worried; screaming in pain is something Shadow the Hedgehog, aka Ultimate Lifeform, just _doesn't _do. Within the minute, Rouge had found herself here, alone in this unfamiliar world.

But at least she had found a road. A road meant intelligent life, and intelligent life meant a few things. One: Maybe someone could help her find Sonic, Shadow, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy, assuming they were even in the same world as her. Two: Maybe someone could help them find a way home. But most important was number three: Maybe someone could help Shadow, wherever he was, with whatever happened to him.

Okay, so they were three big 'maybes'. But at least it was worth a shot. After all, it was the only shot she had.

Grunting needlessly, Rouge climbed to her feet – minding her twisted ankle – and continued on her way up the road, hoping that she would find someone, _soon_.

She wasn't sure how long she was walking before she looked up and saw something in the distance. Her spirits were lifted as she squinted in the sunlight and realized it was a cluster of small buildings.

Unless it was a mirage.

Either way, it was worth a shot. It was her _only_ shot.

Her pace quickened until finally, she decided to fly, even though her wings were sore and stiff.

Sure enough, in just one minute, she was close enough to see that it was indeed a small town, with a sign that said:

WELCOME TO CELESTIC TOWN-HOME OF THE LUSTROUS ORB

"Sound inviting," she said to herself with a smile. "My kind of town."

As she entered the town limits from the east gate, landing lightly on her feet, she was surprised to find…well, nothing. Sure, there were some buildings: a blue one with a red roof that had a big sign reading POKÉMON CENTER found just to her left; a few houses at the corners of the town; and a larger building forty five degrees to her right called the CELESTIC TOWN HISTORICAL RESEARCH CENTER; as well as a couple tiny ponds. But there was no mall, no restaurant, no park, no schools, not even any _cars_! But there was a cave at the center of the community. "This isn't a town," Rouge scoffed. "It's a hick joint!"

Be it town or hick joint, Rouge continued on her short trek to the Celestic Town Historical Research Center, feeling a bit uneasy in the deserted streets. Where was everyone? Surely someone lived in this dinky little town, but there was no one to be found. Either everyone was inside or the town was completely deserted. But even though she could not see anything, she felt another presence, as though she was being watched.

A slight sound behind her made her turn so quickly she nearly fell over again. However, she sighed in relief when she saw that it was merely a kitty standing in the road, staring at her. A big, white, somewhat ferocious-looking but very pretty kitty with a skinny tail that curved at the end and a very elegant air about it. And a small _jewel_ embedded into its forehead. Huh.

Something clicked in the bat's mind. "A _jewel_?" she said aloud, staring at the feline with bewilderment. _Now, how would a cat manage to get a jewel implanted into its head?_

She did not have much time to think about it, because as soon as she made eye contact with the animal, it growled and unfurled its tail. Then, with a loud, ferocious hiss, it charged towards Rouge, rage clearly showing in its eyes as the sun gleamed off the gem.

Rouge stared at it advancing on her with a sudden terrible realization: _this cat was coming to get her!_

Rouge quickly turned towards the Research Center and ran as fast as her tired legs could carry her. She was halfway between the building and the feral beast, with forty feet between herself and either. And the cat was gaining; she could hear its ominous growls sounding from behind her. _If she could just get to the building…_

She took to the skies, jumping up and whipping out her wings. She felt herself gaining momentum as she flapped hard, straining her already-strained muscles. Yet, still the cat gained on her. Rouge risked a glance over her shoulder. She was only fifteen feet away from her goal now, but the feral creature was a mere ten from her.

With one last powerful flap from her leathery wings, Rouge shot forward. _Five feet, three, one…_

She put her hands out to push through the door and into safety, and—

_SMACK!_

Rouge crumpled against the glass door hands-first, realizing a second later that a sign on it said **PULL TO OPEN** in big, bold letters. And she had pushed.

Actually, she had rammed.

_Well, that would have been nice to know two seconds ago_, she thought to herself bitterly.

A deep growl brought her back to the task at hand: _not being eaten_. She turned just in time to see the elegantly savage feline take a running leap at her, its claws outstretched and a wild light in its eyes as the jewel sparkled brightly on its head.

Rouge instinctively put her hands up to protect herself as she huddled against the glass door, bracing herself with closed eyes and tense muscles for the inevitable.

Then, faster than she knew what was happening, she felt a hand grab her arm and pull her hard. Her eyes flew open at the physical contact, and she barely had time to register that she was flying backwards through air and a now-open glass door. The door slammed shut a second before she landed hard on the marble-tiled floor, and only a fraction of a second later, she found herself facing the rather squished face of a once-elegant looking cat that was not so elegant anymore. Its nose was pressed against the glass uncomfortably and it looked stunned, then it slowly sank to the ground. A second later, it jumped back to its feet and began stalking back and forth in front of the door, watching the bat that had just barely escaped it.

_Wait a second…_

Rouge whipped around on the floor to find a rather old man with grey hair and bushy black eyebrows panting a few feet away from her.

When he caught her gaze, he smiled at her. "That was pretty close. It's hard to say what would have happened if I hadn't been watching, eh?"

Rouge blinked at him and did a once over. The man was wearing a red dress shirt and dark tan corduroy pants, as well as a white lab coat.

"A human?" she said without meaning to.

The man was taken aback by the statement, but not for the reasons that Rouge thought. "You talk," he said, sounding disbelieving. He quickly recovered and smiled again. "How interesting. And may I ask, what kind of Pokémon are you?"

Rouge stared at the man, her mouth hanging open as she searched for the meaning in his question. "Uh…what?" she said, standing slowly and brushing herself off without taking her eyes off the man.

"Your species," he explained, doing the same. "You know; there's Eevee and Pikachu, Chikorita, Charizard. What Pokémon are you?"

"I'm…a bat?" she replied uncertainly.

The man frowned. "You look nothing like Zubat or Golbat."

Rouge raised an eyebrow. "Because I'm not. My name is Rouge."

"A Rouge?"

"No, just Rouge. That's my name."

A light of understanding fell across his features. "Oh! I see. Your name is Rouge."

"Yes," Rouge said, relieved that the explaining was over.

The man smiled again. "So that's what your master called you."

Rouge stared at him, somewhat frustrated. "_No_!" she said harshly. "My _name_ is _Rouge_ the _Bat_. _Rouge _is my first name, _Bat_ would technically be my last name! The _name_ that my _parents_ gave me!"

He stared at her uncomprehendingly. "So…you're a Rouge, then?"

"NO!" she shouted, then sighed. "My name is Rouge. My species is bat. I am Rouge the Bat. That is the name I was born with. I can change it if I want to, but I don't want to. Rouge the Bat _is_ my name. You got one of those, genius?" she asked, obviously annoyed.

The man stood staring at her for what seemed like hours before he finally snapped out of it. "I am Professor Samuel Oak, a Pokémon Researcher from the Kanto region," he said slowly. He opened his mouth to say something else, but Rouge beat him to it.

"Where am I?" she asked, feeling impatient

"Celestic Town, population of thirteen, in the Sinnoh region," Professor Oak replied, still a bit confused.

"Sinnoh Region…" she repeated the name slowly, like a toddler learning a new word. "How many regions are there?" she finally asked.

"Uh…"

"And what _is_ that gorgeous animal out there," Rouge continued before he could answer.

"Um, it's a Persian," he replied, feeling a little overwhelmed at the amount of questions from this unidentified, _talking _Pokémon.

"What's its problem with me?" she wondered aloud.

"It gets agitated easily," Professor Oak explained, "but becomes temporarily docile if you pull its whiskers….Shouldn't you _know_ this?"

She half-glared at him. "_No_, I shouldn't. That's why I'm _asking _you," she said firmly, then suddenly froze.

Professor Oak gazed at this strange creature, noticing how much it differed from any other Pokémon he had ever seen. He noticed its left ear twitch slightly before it suddenly whipped its head to face the world outside. Following her gaze out the clear glass doors, he noticed a small company of people entering the town from the west side and walking briskly towards the Poké-Center. The tall, darker-skinned one was awkwardly carrying something black in his arms.

The professor's eyes widened in surprise as he suddenly recognized the group of three, and if he had any doubts at all, they vanished when he saw the Pikachu sitting on the shorter boy's shoulder.

"Why isn't the cat attacking _them_?" Rouge's question snapped the Professor from his thoughts and he looked to the door to see that the Persian had settled into a more comfortable position, still watching his guest intently.

"Maybe it has a thing for you, Rouge," he replied, a slight smile gracing his normally hard expression.

An awkward silence passed between the two as they watched the trio disappear into the Poké-Center. Professor Oak glanced from the blue building to the big-eared, obviously female winged creature standing before him and noticed that she looked troubled. Her large, aqua eyes seemed confused and worried. Finally, he dared to ask, "Why are you here?"

She looked at him, startled by such a question, but simply sighed. "It's a long story," she said, offering no further explanation. With that, she walked over to the door and placed her gloved hands on the bar, already pushing it open.

"Wait—" the Researcher called after her as she stalked out the door.

As soon as the door opened, the Persian was on its feet and ready to attack, but Rouge had another plan. Remembering what Professor Oak had told her, she moved with incredible speed—speed that shocked the Professor—and yanked hard on the Persian's whiskers.

Immediately, the feline's attitude changed from aggressive to almost friendly, and as Rouge bent down to pat it gently, it began to purr softly.

"There, beautiful," she said softly, scratching it behind the ears. "Now we can get along just fine."

Professor Oak stood there, mouth agape and eyes wide. He had _never_ seen two Pokémon interact in such a way. This…_Rouge_ seemed more human than animal as far as personality goes, but clearly she was a Pokémon. She _must_ have been a Pokémon…there was no other explanation as to her appearance…

Rouge promptly stood from where she had been crouching with the purring Persian and faced the Professor. "I have to go," she informed him casually, as if they had known each other for a long time. "I have…friends that I have to find. Friends who might need me." _Shadow… _she thought to herself.

"Friends…like you?" he asked slowly.

She nodded.

Professor Oak scratched the back of his head as she turned to leave. "Wait…" he said, catching her attention. She turned back with a questioning light in her eyes. He sighed. "I think…I think I might be able to help with that."

Rouge tilted her head in confusion, and he continued. "Those kids that came into town…I know them. It's Ash, Dawn, and Brock. They travel a lot; maybe they've seen who you're looking for…" he allowed his voice to trail off, mostly because he was unsure of how to continue.

Rouge thought for a moment. She had to find someone—_anyone_—that she knew, but had_ no_ idea where to start. What the Professor said, though strange and random, made sense. She had nothing better to go on. _I have no other choice._ Though somewhat reluctantly, she agreed with a nod.

The two, plus the Persian, which so happily began trotting after Rouge, started towards the Poké-Center.

"What is this place for, anyway?" Rouge asked.

"It is a center for weak and injured Pokémon," he explained. "Here, they can receive proper medical attention and regain their energy."

"And a Pokémon would be…what, exactly?"

Professor Oak paused for a second to stare uncomprehendingly at the bat. "You," he said finally as the two of them, followed by the Persian, entered the center.

Before Rogue had a chance to respond, the Professor was greeted by three kids—teenagers, from the looks of it.

"Professor Oak!" the tall squinty-eyed one exclaimed, standing from the chair he'd been sitting in.

"What are you doing here?" a girl wearing a dark-blue blouse/vest and a white hat asked.

"I was doing research at the Historical Research Center," he explained. "What are _you three_ doing here?"

"It's a long story," the girl said, shooting a hard glare at the dark-haired boy in the blue jacket, who was the only one not to say anything so far. "Let's just say it involved a certain somebody being a _jerk_," she spat over her shoulder. Then she turned an attentive look to Rouge, who had been standing slightly behind Professor Oak since entering the building. "What kind of Pokémon is this?" She asked him.

Before either Rouge or the Professor could respond, an adorable red-haired girl wearing a pink nurse's outfit appeared as a set of automatic door opened, followed closely by a light pink blob nearly as tall as Rouge shaped like an egg, which also wore a nurse's hat.

She walked straight to the three kids with a not-so-well-hidden grim expression.

"What's the news, Nurse Joy?" the girl with the hat asked, while the darker-skinned boy fell to one knee, hearts in his eyes.

"Oh, fair maiden: Your ever-present beauty is incomparable, even to the first rays of sunshine on a calm autumn morning; even to the bright arc of luscious colour that spreads across the sky after a light spring rain; even to—"

He was promptly cut off as a beam or red light shot from his backpack and a strange blue frog-like creature materialized. Its fist glowed pink, and it swung it hard into the boy's stomach, causing his odd expression and posture to freeze as he fell to the ground and the frog creature dragged him away, but Rouge barely registered that. She was more shocked by its sudden appearance. However, the five humans in the room seemed unfazed.

The nurse—Nurse Joy—began her report, ignoring the events from a moment before. "There is good news and bad news," she started, and Rouge's ears perked up, wondering what she was talking about. "But unfortunately, it's mostly bad news. The Pokémon you have brought in has minor injuries; its condition is mostly that of exhaustion. The three children, including the odd boy who had recovered, breathed a collective sigh of relief.

"But," Joy went on, "it's exhaustion is that of the highest extremity. I've never seen anything like it before. It's like all of its energy was suddenly sucked out of it unmercifully."

The boy who still had yet to speak raised his head from where it hung shamefully, with worry clearly written across his face.

"Don't worry," Joy said, noting his expression, "This kind of exhaustion would never come from a Poké-battle."

"Though it certainly wouldn't help," the girl muttered, then said aloud, "Will it be okay?"

The nurse shook her head helplessly. "I honestly don't know. It's a possibility, but with its condition…" she allowed her voice to trail off, leaving the worst to be assumed. A tense silence fell over the crowd.

"Well, can't it just gather energy again like other Pokémon?" the flirtatious boy said.

"That's the thing; its power seems to come from an unknown source, and besides that, there seems to be something restricting the rate of which it can gather and maintain said power. It makes no sense…"

Finally, his curiosity getting the better of him, Professor Oak said, "If I may, what kind of Pokémon is it?"

She shook her head again. "I don't know that, either."

He turned to the three children, but each also shook their head helplessly. The three children shook their heads as well.

The Professor looked to Nurse Joy, a silent message passing between them, and she nodded. "The Chansey have moved it to the intensive care unit. Follow me."

She started through a different set of double doors, and Professor Oak followed a few steps before turning to his company. "Coming, Rouge?" he asked, deeming it unfit to leave behind his guest.

She nodded and followed the two down the corridor, the Persian at her side, as the doors closed behind them. After a mere half-minute, they made it to a room that had two entrances; one on the right side of it, and one on the left. The three, four if you include the Persian, entered from the right, and Rouge gasped at what she saw. She stood there, eyes wide and jaw slack at what her eyes were telling her.

For there, lying still as death and slightly pale on a stretcher-bed, was a black-spiked figure with red stripes up his legs, arms, and each of his five spikes.

"Shadow…"

**So watcha think? Is it too dragged on? Should I have split it in two, or did you like it this way? If so, I promise I'll work on it for future chapters. If not, I won't Xp. Updates should pick up speed now that school's done in three days.**


	8. On the Other Side

**Hey, look at that. It's only three pages long! I was beginning to think it was impossible for me to write a short chapter! But anyways, small change of plans. We're not back with Shadow. But I think this is at least a little important, so here it is. **

**Wow! 99 reviews? You guys rock! That's 26 reviews since I posted chapter 7! And NONE of them were bad! Is this really that good?**

**Note: Starting next chapter, I will respond to anonymous reviews at the end of the chapter.**

**Disclaimer: You can not buy it, therefore I can not make money off it. If I can not make money off of it, what does that tell you?**

Chapter 8

On the Other Side

**Mobius**

Cream the Rabbit was skipping happily towards Freedom HQ with her Chao Cheese flying beside her, followed closely by Bunny, Sally, Rotor, and Antoine. "Wasn't that fun, Ms. Sally?" the rabbit asked sweetly.

The chipmunk looked at her wearily, and said with as much enthusiasm as she could muster, "Oh yes! The carnival was great fun! I can't wait till next year!" Then, turning to an equally exhausted Bunny Rabbot, muttered with far less enthusiasm, "Who knew such a sweet little kid would go so crazy at an amusement park?"

Bunny nodded her agreement. "Ah ain't never seen a child git so excited. Ah can see now why Vanilla wanted all four a' us to watch her young'un."

"Alas! I now see why Ms. _Vanille_ has been calling zis a _mission_," the French coyote added dramatically.

"Look on the bright side," Rotor said happily, being the only one not totally wiped out. "We just made the day of a six year old rabbit _and_ her mother. _And_…"—he paused for dramatic effect as Cream skipped through the door to their headquarters—"Nothing horrible has happened all day," he finished proudly.

"_AAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!_"

The high-pitched scream of horror sounded from the stone building, where the young rabbit had just entered.

"_CREAM!!!!_" the four adults cried at the same time, immediately forgetting their weariness and taking off at top speed towards her cry.

They reached the door as a unit, ready to fight off whatever was attacking their charge. However, what they found was far from what they expected.

Instead of finding robots or inter-dimensional travellers or any kind of danger at all, the four Freedom Fighters were very surprised to find their headquarters in shambles. Furniture was knocked over; plaster and chips of stone were falling out of large cracks in the walls; the display of the fake Emeralds was shattered, with the gems scattered all over the room; and all equipment in that area of their fortress had been destroyed. But worst of all was the fact that Sonic, Tails, Amy, Knuckles, and Rouge were nowhere to be found.

"What—What happened here?" the Mobian princess managed to choke out, gaping at the devastation around her.

"Ah dunno," Bunny replied angrily, "but ah'm willin' ta bet that Eggman's got sumthin ta do with it!"

"Zis…Zis is _horrible_!" Antoine declared. "Where are zee oders?"

Rotor rushed off to check the other rooms for any sign of their friends, and was soon followed by an anxious group of Freedom Fighters. All six-year-old Cream could do, however, was stare at the condition of this room with a horror-stricken expression. Even her Chao could not draw her attention away from the scene. That is, not until it flew in front of her face and pointed frantically to the ground at her feet.

"Chao Chao!" it said in its annoyingly high-pitched voice, finally getting its owner's attention.

Snapped back to reality, Cream followed the gaze of her Chao to a golden glittering object barely visible through the rubble on the floor. "What's this?" she asked her pet, bending down to pick it up. When she did, she realized that it was a shard of gold-coloured metal. Another glint caught her eye underneath some more debris and she brushed away some of the dirt and glass to find another metal splinter, and another, and another, and more after that.

Now she was on her knees, gently sweeping away dust and rock and glass with one hand, while gathering all the shards of gold metal in the other and holding them close. Cheese had joined her, and was doing all that it could to help with its stubby little hands.

"What have you got there, Cream?"

The rabbit looked up to see Sally Acorn watching her curiously, though her worried expression had not disappeared. "Cheese found these," she explained, holding the shards of metal up for Sally to see.

The princess carefully took the pieces from her charge and examined them closely as Rotor entered the room from the Lab. "No sign of Tails in there, or anyone else for that matter. It's like they just disappeared into thin—" He cut himself off when he saw the metal in Sally's hands. "What's that?"

Sally held her hand out to him as Bunny and Antoine joined the group. Rotor took the metal, eyeing it curiously.

"What iz zat?" the coyote asked.

Rotor muttered something inaudible and turned towards the Lab, taking Cheese's find with him. The other Freedom Fighters exchanged curious glances before following, with Cream close behind. The walrus sat down at a desk with some sort of black oval scanning device. He placed the metal mass inside the scanner and turned it on. Instantly, scientific and mathematical gibberish filled the computer screen the device was hooked up to, and Rotor spent the next minute staring at the screen, muttering phrases like "Interesting" and "Impossible…"

Finally, Antoine snapped under the suspense. "What IZ it, already?"

Rotor leaned back in his swivel chair and sighed. "If I didn't know any better," he said slowly, "I'd say that these pieces of metal are the remnants of Inhibitor Rings."

As if on cue, the scanning device beeped and a feminine robotic voice sounded from the computer. _"ITEM IDENTIFIED: CHAOS ENERGY PRESENT; INHIBITOR RINGS CONFIRMED."_

All eyes turned to the shattered Rings.

"But…But that means…" Cream stuttered, looking horrified.

Rotor nodded. "Shadow was here too. And something must have been seriously wrong for his Inhibitor Rings to shatter. There had to have been an impossible amount of energy used—maybe in Chaos Blast. But that outburst of energy…" He cleared his throat and finished quietly, "That outburst of energy might have destroyed them all."

A tense silence fell over the group, broken only by Cream's quiet sobs.

"No," Bunny finally said, her southern voice strong. "Sugah Hog's a fighter, an' so ain't all them others. They're Freedom Fighters! A little Chaos energy ain't gonna kill any of `em. Y'all have gotta find another option."

Obligingly, Rotor turned back to the computer screen and scrolled through the garbled information. After what seemed like an eternity, he stopped at one particular section of scientific nonsense and poured over it, looking for any other possibility. "Strange…" he muttered, then leaned back so he could face the four eager Mobians.

"Apparently," he started, "there was a code programmed into these Rings that could only be broken by Shadow's genetic makeup. In other words, _only_ he could use the Rings."

"What iz your point?" Antoine asked impatiently.

"I'm getting there," Rotor replied, half glaring at the coyote. "As I was saying before being so _rudely _interrupted: There was also another code programmed into them; a kind of homing signal, it seems. But this kind of technology is modern, which doesn't make sense because Shadow's Inhibitor Rings should be over fifty years old. Stuff like this didn't exist back then, which can only mean one thing…"

"These Rings weren't the original ones," Sally deduced wonderingly.

Rotor nodded. "Exactly."

"So can you tell what happened to our friends, Mr. Rotor?" Cream asked politely.

"Well, let's see here…" Rotor clicked a few keys on the keyboard and another window popped up, with even more scientific and mathematical nonsense. "It's hard to tell, since the Rings are no longer intact. But according to my calculations, the energy released by Shadow would have to equal the amount he released in his Super form when he performed Chaos…Control…" His voice trailed off as the realization hit him, and he turned with wide eyes to face the rest of the group.

"I think I know what happened," he announced quickly. Without explaining further, he turned back to the computer and typed something into it. A small window flashed on the screen and a little bar on it began quickly filling with green as it loaded the command Rotor put in. "Remember that homing signal I told you about? I'm tracking it now."

After a moment, the voice from the computer sounded again. _"ORIGIN LOCATED: ROBOTROPOLIS."_

"Ah knew it!" Bunny declared. "That no good fer `nuthin swine!"

"So from the looks of it," Rotor said tensely, "Eggman was controlling the power of the Rings. It's my guess that he tricked Shadow into putting them all, and then forced Chaos Control upon him. Judging by the destruction here, I'd say Shadow was here when it happened. Which means that whoever was around was probably caught in it. The only problem is that I can't tell where they were sent."

"Humph!" The angry grunt, surprisingly, sounded from the meek little rabbit girl. The four adults turned to face her, after nearly forgetting she was even there with them. "Well then I think we should pay Eggman a visit and _make_ him tell us where our friends are!" she said sternly.

The Freedom Fighters agreed with a nod, surprised at her amount of anger. Cream may have been a helpless child in some people's eyes, but when it comes down to helping her friends, she was all business. She was normally easy going, but if you made her angry, she could easily overpower nearly any one of the Freedom Fighters.

And Eggman had made her angry.

**A/N: There has been an incident involving a quite nasty review on another story of mine. This review basically told me to forget about all my other stories because this one is more popular, only the reviewer was quite rude about it. I did not appreciate that one bit. I know this is my most popular story, and I know that you guys really like it, and I like it too. But I want everyone on here to know that I like writing my other stories, too, and just because this one is my most popular doesn't mean I'm going to stop writing my other ones, or starting new ones. I will, however, ensure that I don't neglect my other stories, including this one. I would appreciate it if no one tells me what story to write, because I write them in whatever order I feel is right. On that note, if you have a concern, you may PM me or leave a review, but please do so in a polite way, and if you decide to review on another story to get my attention for something involving this one, at least read the story you review on and give some feedback. I like polite people. If you are polite, I will never have a problem with you. If anything is unclear in this, please let me know via PM and I will explain further. Also, I have a list of things I do not want in a review on my profile.**


	9. Rouge's Wrath

**Hey! Sorry for the long wait. I got a job that takes up more time than school did since I last posted, and plus I just got home from a two week vacation with my entire family in Florida, during which I had NO time to write and barely any to read. **

**I don't know if I'm happy with the way this chapter turned out. I dunno. Tell me what ya think please :)**

**Congratulations and thanks to all of my reviewers in helping me to reach over 100 reviews! A special shout out to CleverPhoenix for submitting the actual 100****th**** review. You guys are awesome!**

**You'll be happy to know the issue mentioned in my last note has been resolved and is no longer a problem, but not so much to know that some wise-guy went and posted rude things probably deliberately to upset me. But it hasn't, and since he used cowardice by hiding behind an anonymous name to do his deed, I simply deleted what he said. So I am taking this time to not only thank you guys for the 100 reviews, but also to thank you so much for your politeness in them all. like I said before, you guys ROCK! :D**

**Disclaimer: My birthday's in 8 days (August 8, I'll be 16)…Maybe I'll get them both as a gift! Then I could make money off them and go to Australia! Until then, I am not the owner of Sonic or Pokémon.**

Chapter 9

Rouge's Wrath

**Celestic Town**

Professor Oak was shocked, to say the least; not because of the sight of the Pokémon lying on the stretcher bed, but more so because of the reaction of the Rouge that he had just met. As soon as she saw the red-streaked creature, her face lit up with recognition and worry as she let out a small gasp.

"Rouge, do you know this Pokémon?" he asked, genuinely interested.

The bat Pokémon ignored his question and ran over to the side of the other, grasping its limp hand. "Shadow!" she nearly yelled. "Wake up! Talk to me!"

When the black creature was unresponsive, she turned desperately to Nurse Joy, who was watching with just as much confusion as the Professor. "What happened?" she demanded furiously.

"You…You can talk?" the nurse asked, unsure of whether to believe her eyes and ears or not.

Rouge dropped Shadow's hand and marched right up to the red haired lady. Startled at her actions, Joy backed up until she was pressed against the wall beside the door. But Rouge didn't care. "I said,"—she lowered her voice and spoke through clenched teeth—"What happened?"

"I-I don't know the details," Joy said quickly. "But it was hurt in a battle."

"With who?"

"Ash."

Without another word, Rouge spread her leathery wings, lifted into the air, and shot out the door, ready to kill. The Persian ran after, keeping up very well, and Professor Oak was following in a second.

"Rouge!" he shouted after her, running down the hall. "What are you doing?"

Rouge didn't answer, but rather increased her speed and shut out the Professor's concerned voice as she raced towards the waiting room, her rage replacing her common sense. All that pounded in her brain was anger: anger at this Ash kid for hurting Shadow; anger at Shadow for allowing himself to fall for Eggman's trick that put him in this situation in the first place; but mostly anger at herself for not being able to do anything to help her friend. but since Shadow was already in pretty hard shape, and she wasn't about to beat herself up over it, this snot-nosed brat would have to do.

She pushed her way through the double doors she had entered from a minute before and landed, her heels clacking loudly on the tiled floor. She looked up at the three startled teens with dark eyes, coming to rest on the one with the red baseball cap. Somehow, she just _knew_ that this was the boy who was to blame. Perhaps it was the way the blue-haired girl had showed such spite towards him earlier. Perhaps it was his guilty silence. Or maybe it was the fact that the other boy did not seem like one who would A: have the guts to do something like that to Shadow, or B: have the name 'Ash'. But above all, she suspected it was just her gut feeling pointing her in the right direction.

Not that she was exactly listening to her gut right now. Her gut was screaming at her to _not_ do this right now, but her feelings were too jarred up right now for her to care. Shadow was hurt, maybe even _dying_, and it was because of this kid. Somehow, if she could just—

Without even knowing what she was hoping to accomplish, Rouge the Bat sprung off the floor, flapped her wings hard, and shot forward like a missile. And straight towards the boy with the red cap.

Ash Ketchum was startled, to say the least, when the odd white bat Pokémon had burst through the doors with enough force to shake the floor; even more so when it had come to lay angry eyes on him and him alone. It reminded him of a Scyther or Electabuzz when exposed to the colour red. Why was it so focused on _him_?

He wasn't going to get his answer; at least, not before Rouge got some of her anger out. Before he knew what was happening, Ash found himself flat on the floor with gloved hands pressing against his throat. His eyes widened in panic as he felt his airway cut off as he stared into the crazed eyes of this Pokémon. What had he done to make it so angry at him?

What happened next surprised him beyond all measure, because even though he had seen it quite a few times before and even that same day, a talking Pokémon in such a mindless rage was quite shocking. Because usually, the talking ones are the ones that help him save the world.

Before long, two sets of hands grabbed a hold of Rouge's arms and pulled hard, peeling her hands away from her victim. But Rouge was powered by anger and the fact that she was really strong to begin with, so she had no trouble throwing them off.

Jumping back to his feet, Brock rushed towards his friend's assailant again, only to be intercepted by a very wild-looking Persian that seemed to be defending the out-of-control winged creature. Ash would unfortunately have to get out of this one without any quick help.

Ash fought like a wildcat under the hands of his attacker, but to no avail. It was stronger than he was, and it was wild; unless, of course, Professor Oak had captured it. No matter how hard he struggled, it was no use.

Screams, shouts, and crashes sounded throughout the building as the humans tried desperately to contain the angered creature. The noise echoed through the corridors, spreading through the entire complex, until finally the sound waves arrived at a certain pair of ebony ears. One of them twitched at the sound, and a low groan escaped the figure that it was attached to.

Shadow the Hedgehog slowly opened his crimson eyes. "Where—?" He blinked and his vision sharpened into focus on the light bulb directly above him, which told him that he was for sure lying down. Slowly, he pushed himself into a sitting position and looked around, aware of a dull throbbing at his temples and the burning of his wrists.

He was on a rather uncomfortable bed that looked a lot like one you would find in a hospital, except smaller. There were no pillows or any blankets, but wires leading from his body to some kind of monitor told him that this was, indeed, a hospital of some sort.

_But what am I doing in a hospital?_

Almost immediately after the thought, a rush of memory came back to him; waking in the crude campsite, Brock's 'food', throwing Pikachu, fighting Ash's pets, Dawn's eyes, and his current predicament.

…But mostly it was Dawn's eyes.

_I must have passed out again, _Shadow thought, unable to recall anything past that. _How embarrassing._

That was when he heard the sounds that had woken him; a distant _"Ash!" _and _"Rouge, Stop it!" _and—

He froze.

Rouge? As in, _Rouge_?

Without another thought, the hedgehog pushed himself off the bed and onto his feet. Then, with slightly wobbly knees and aching muscles, he set off. First out of this room and into the hall, then following his ears down the corridor and to a set of large double doors, panting and with slightly blurred vision by the time he arrived. When he pushed through the doors, he was surprised by what he saw.

Sure enough, his ears had not been deceiving him. Rouge the Bat was present, but not necessarily all there. Her mind must have been on something else—something that made her _really _angry—for she was on top of the dark-haired boy named Ash with her hands pressed to his neck and a savage spark in her eyes. At the same time, an elegantly ferocious-looking cream-coloured cat was snarling and hissing, keeping a group of four humans—two of which he did not recognize—away from his enraged companion. What had the poor boy done to become the subject of Rouge's wrath?

_I must be dreaming,_ he told himself, blinking at the display. Rouge wouldn't do something like that. Rouge probably wouldn't be here in the first place. That would make his existence too easy. And yet, he felt too much like crap to be dreaming. Then again, one can dream they feel like crap.

That was when he noticed Pikachu—the stalker mouse from earlier—stumbling to its feet after apparently carelessly and roughly being thrown into a wall…one can only assume by a certain angry bat. Its eyes fell on its struggling master and his assailant, and instantly its expression changed from dazed and confused to angry and determined; such as that which it had when attacking Shadow.

Immediately he knew what was happening, even before the yellow sparks danced across Pikachu's red cheeks. And he also knew what would happen if the pending bolt of electricity hit Rouge.

Dream or no dream, Shadow couldn't let that happen. He had to get Rouge out of there.

Oh yeah, and Ash too. Can't forget about Ash.

Despite his weakened physical state, the hedgehog sprang into action. In a second, he was racing the steady stream of fatality through the air and towards the bat and the boy.

_I'm not going to make it…_

But dreaming or not, Shadow was the Ultimate Lifeform. Do you think he'd lose to a lightning bolt conjured up by a little stalker mouse that he could throw fifty feet across a field with his foot? Of course not!

At the last second, he felt his body make contact with that of the Dream Rouge, and the two of them were falling. Unfortunately, he couldn't get Ash out of there; but he was prioritizing, and Rouge came _way_ before Ash. Dreaming or not.

Not that it really mattered; as he fell through the air, Shadow watched the electricity make contact with Ash. However, an odd expression and charred hair seemed to be all that resulted for the human. If it had hit either him or Rouge, the effects would have been far more severe and much more logical than simply charred hair and a blackened odd expression.

_That is _not_ fair_, was all Shadow had time to think before he felt himself make contact with the floor.

And then he was on top of Dream Rouge, gazing down into her startled aqua eyes. She dream-stared at him with dream-shock and opened her dream-mouth.

"Shadow?" Rouge asked in a whisper, unable to believe her eyes because what her eyes told her was too unbelievable. Shadow, awake? When did that happen? On that note, what was he doing?

Shadow was also startled, but for a different reason. He was _still_ dreaming. Rouge was _still_ here. Usually he would wake up as soon as he hit the floor in his dream, and yet here he was. And he still felt things; the floor under his hands, the ever-present burning of his wrists, the dull headache caused by Pikachu's Iron Tail, and every bruise or scratch that he had received during and since his arrival. It all seemed too real and precise and _long _to be a dream.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity but was really only a few seconds, Shadow pushed himself to his feet and extended a hand to Dream Rouge. She took it hesitantly and allowed him to help her to her feet, then looked around her. Shadow did the same, and was partially surprised to find everyone—including Pikachu and the gasping, slightly crispy Ash—staring at the two of them. Brock was the first to speak.

"So…I take it you two know each other?"

Rouge was about to reply when she noticed Shadow's dazed expression, and instead she turned to him. "Shadow, are you okay?"

"Humph," was his typical response, turning away from her. He felt fine.

_Who am I kidding? I feel like crap. _

No sooner had the thought crossed his mind and a wave of light-headedness bombarded his brain and he swayed, the light at the end of his tunnel disappearing to blackness. _Again_.

Rouge acted quickly, shooting out her arm and catching Shadow's limp form before he hit the floor. As she gently lowered him to the floor, the others gathered around curiously—especially Professor Oak and Nurse Joy.

"Is it okay?" Ash asked quietly.

Rouge turned on him angrily. "'_It_?'" she asked incredulously. "Are you _blind_? For goodness sakes, he's a _guy_! Don't you people have genders around here?"

All humans—with the exception of one—exchanged confused glances. Since when do Pokémon talk like _that_?

Ash, however, had something else on the mind. "Well, it's not like it deserves special attention just because it talks," he sneered.

Rouge's expression darkened and she stood to her full height, turning to face Ash. "You have no right—" she began, but was cut off by the boy.

"I have more right than you or your friend!" he snapped, also standing. "You're nothing but an animal; a slave to be trained for battle. Nothing more."

"Ash!" Dawn scolded, glaring at him. "What is _wrong_ with you?"

He returned her glare and replied with, "I'm simply informing _it_ of the laws of nature."

Dawn nearly stumbled in shock at his words, and Brock and Professor Oak dropped their jaws. Nurse Joy's expression turned hard, and even Pikachu was completely taken aback by his statement.

The only thing that kept Rouge from attacking him a second time was the slight movement of the ebony figure on the floor. In a second, she was at Shadow's side, but not before shooting another glare at Ash. If looks could kill, Ash would have suffered the most painful and torturous death imaginable four times over.

"Unnnnhhhhh…"

Rouge watched anxiously as Shadow's blood-red eyes flickered open and looked at her uncomprehendingly.

"…Rouge?" he asked. "You're still here?"

She smiled, forgetting her anger at Ash for the moment. "Of course. Where would I go?"

He frowned and looked confused. "I thought I was dreaming."

She laughed. "No such luck, hon. It's all real."

Sighing, Shadow tried to push himself to a sitting position. "Please tell me I did _not_ just faint in front of you."

"I can say that if you want, but I know you hate being misled," she teased with a wink.

His expression darkened. "Rouge, if you ever repeat this—"

"Relax, handsome. I would never _dream _of spreading the news that Mr. Macho Ultimate Lifeform fainted in my arms," she continued tantalizing, mischief dancing in her eyes. "Speaking of which, why…?" She allowed her voice to trail off, knowing that Shadow would understand.

Without a word, Shadow nodded and held up a hand for her to see. She gasped when she saw the red stained bandages. "Oh, Shadow…" she said sympathetically. "What happened?"

He lowered his hand and rubbed the wrist with the other, wincing slightly. "I can't say for sure, but I think the Rings shattered just before the teleportation was completed. That would explain why so much of my energy has been depleted. If they were gone before the full release of the Chaos, I would have nothing to regulate the amount of my own power used in the process."

"What are you talking about?"

The two Mobians turned their attention to a very confused-looking group of humans, in particular a man wearing a white lab coat. In truth, Shadow and Rouge had forgotten they were even there.

Professor Oak stepped forward. "What's all this about teleportation and rings and ultimate lifeforms?" he asked with a mixture of astonishment and genuine curiosity.

Rouge and Shadow exchanged glances. "Well, we're certainly not in Mobius anymore," Rouge commented quietly to her companion. "There's someone here who _hasn't _heard of you."

"Mobius…" the Professor repeated slowly. "I'm not familiar with that region. Are all Pokémon there like you?"

Rouge rolled her eyes and climbed to her feet, pulling Shadow up with her. "First of all, gramps, stop calling me a 'Pokémon'. Secondly, I think we deserve a few answers before we start answering to you, first question being: What in the world is his _problem_?" she demanded, pointing an accusing finger at the now half-terrified-looking Ash.

All eyes turned to the pale and trembling boy. "Yeah, _Ash_," Dawn said, not trying to hide her current spite towards him.

"I…I d-don't know," he replied shakily, looking around all the disapproving faces. "It just…happened." He backed to a nearby chair and plopped down in it, taking deep breaths and staring into the distance. "Ever since we came across the Poké—I mean, Shadow, I just…haven't been feeling like myself."

Angry faces turned less angry and more concerned, except for Rouge's. She was still fuming at being called a 'slave' and an 'it' and an 'animal'.

Professor Oak placed a gentle, almost parent-like hand on Ash's shoulder. "Have you any idea what could be causing this?"

"_Cough _PMS _cough_," Rouge choked out under her breath.

Ash glared at her angrily and abruptly stood from his chair. "How _dare_ you mock me!" he snapped so suddenly that Rouge and nearly everyone else jumped. "You have no right to question my actions! I don't answer to you! I don't answer to _any _of you! My master is only myself, and I will not be interrogated by you lesser beings!"

Then, just as suddenly as his outburst had begun, Ash's expression changed drastically from anger and superiority to confused and apologetic. "Rouge, I…I didn't mean—"

"Just stop talking, Ash," Brock said coldly. "You've already said enough."

Frowning, Ash retook his seat.

"Hmm…" Professor Oak sounded, catching the attention of the company. "I have a feeling," he said slowly, "that the appearance of Shadow and Rouge and Ash's strange outbursts may be connected somehow."

"What?" Dawn asked, looking from the Professor to Ash, then to Shadow and Rouge. "How could that be?"

"It's just a theory. But I believe there's more to their story than what we've heard so far," he explained.

"_Hello_," Rouge said, annoyed. "Wake up and smell the roses. The kid has issues! Issues that are gonna get him in trouble some day _very_ soon," she added in a warning tone.

"He might be right," Shadow said quietly, and Rouge turned to him with surprise. He shrugged slightly. "You know that the Chaos has the ability to affect certain individuals. If dark energy is absorbed, a personality change such as Ash's can occur. I've seen it before in Sonic."

He closed his eyes for a moment and drew in a deep breath to steady himself before continuing. "It's time we all got some answers, but first some explaining must be done. Starting with us, Rouge."

Rouge began to protest, but a quick glare from her fellow anthro changed her mind and she sighed in defeat.

The others, with absolutely no clue what they were talking about, waited rather impatiently for whatever was about to happen.

However, before another word could be spoken, a sudden burst of wind bombarded the room, sending papers flying and metal carts crashing, which in turn caused a very distraught Nurse Joy. Immediately, all eyes flew to the entrance of the building to find the doors wide open and a stiff red animal with a crescent moon birthmark and wide, bloodshot eyes standing in the doorway. Flying just in front was a round, feathered creature that all humans present recognized immediately as a Hoothoot. Finally, standing in front of both of them was a cobalt blue and spiked figure with a peach front and arms and a confident smile on his muzzle.

"Heya, Shads!" Sonic the Hedgehog said in his normal care-free and arrogant voice. "What's happenin'?"

**Huh. No anonymous reviews. They're welcome, you know, as long as you're polite. Remember, it is possible to say my story sucks without being mean. If you're mean, I'll either get mad and delete you or ignore you and get on with my life cuz I'm too happy of a person to let that get me down for long. So please review and please be nice :) Thanks!**


	10. Another Ancient Prophesy

**I have come to the conclusion that boyfriends, jobs, and sleep take up a lot of time.**

**Okay, so I kinda changed my mind about what I wanted to do with Tails, which is another reason this took me so long. But like I said, most was boyfriends and jobs. Tell me what you think of this chappie honestly please (and politely, if you hated it. ****:D) :( and this chapter isn't even all that long to make up for it… *dodges pitchforks, torches, and rocks thrown by aggravated fans* :p**

**Disclaimer: SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE NOT READ SONIC UNIVERSE 30 YEARS LATER YET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Actually, yeah. Read it. Be angry, Shadow fans all over the world! **

**If I owned Sonic the Hedgehog, I would not have made Shadow evil in Sonic Universe: 30 years later (that bugs me to death!). If I owned Pokémon …actually I don't even really know what goes on in Pokémon, so how could I possibly own it?**

Chapter 10

Another Ancient Prophesy

**In some unnamed location**

Tails didn't know how long he rode with the other fox, but as terrified as he was, it felt like an eternity. So when the stomach-churning ride finally came to a stop, the kitsune didn't even realize it until he heard a gentle but slightly scratchy voice in front of him.

"What have we here?" the voice asked kindly, then chuckled. "Ninetales, you have never returned with a new friend before"

Tails dared to peek through his fingers, which were still pressed tightly over his eyes. However, he slowly dropped them when he caught sight of his surroundings.

He was still hanging awkwardly from the mouth of the giant, golden-coloured fox with nine tails, but now he found himself in a small open clearing, as opposed to the woods from earlier. Also, there was a small wood cabin just a short ways beyond a frail-looking elderly woman standing in front of him, wearing a faded yellow dress and a light blue shawl draped around her shoulders. He blinked up at her, still fearful but less so now.

The giant fox set Tails down on the ground gently in front of the lady then moved to sit at his side, its tails curling around him slightly.

The lady smiled at the kit warmly and reached down towards him, but he cowered away, hugging his two tails close to his body. Frowning slightly, she pulled her hand back. "It's okay little one," she said softly. "I won't hurt you."

Tails _wanted _to believe her, but isn't that what James had told him? Yet Team Rocket had shot him out of the sky and tried to kidnap him only a short while before. How did he know this lady was any different?

There was only one way to find out.

He gulped nervously. "Who…Who are you?" he asked quietly, inconspicuously getting ready to take to the skies if necessary.

Her wrinkled face showed surprise, but quickly returned to a smile. "So, there _is _something different around here. I thought so."

Now it was Tails' turn to be surprised. "You knew I was here?"

"Not exactly," she replied. "Why don't you come inside dear? We'll talk more once we're more comfortable."

She turned and hobbled towards the cabin. The fox with nine tails stood and followed its master, looking back at Tails as if to ask, "Are you coming or what?"

Hesitantly, the two-tailed fox started after the woman, feeling that Sonic's rule of "don't go anywhere with strangers" didn't apply when in another dimension.

A few minute later, Tails found himself sitting on the soft cushions of a stained blue sofa facing the elderly lady, who had taken up a seat opposite of him in a rocking chair. She had brought out a plate of chocolate chip cookies and two glasses of milk for them both, and, oddly enough, a large, dusty, brown leather-covered book. Tails, feeling much more comfortable, munched on one of the cookies while the lady began.

"My name is Rosa Thorn," she said, then nodded towards the other fox. "This is my Ninetales. It has been my trusted friend and companion for years."

Tails finished his cookie and looked at her with his big blue eyes. "My name is Miles Prower, but my friends call me Tails because of my tails." He smiled. "You can call me Tails if you want to."

She nodded. "Okay Tails. And may I ask…You are not a Pokémon, am I correct?"

Tails blinked at her. "I don't think so."

Rosa smiled again, reminding Tails of a grandmother. "Ninetales is a Pokémon. Meowth is a Pokémon. Pokémon are what we call the animals that live here."

"Then no," Tails said, shaking his head. "I'm a Mobian. That's what we call the inhabitants of our plan—where I come from."

She sighed. "I see." Absently, Rosa began stroking the fur on the head of the golden Ninetales. She looked somewhat troubled. "I didn't think so. You seem…different."

She turned her attention to a window off to the left and gazed at the forest beyond it. "The Pokémon in the forests have been acting strange for a few hours now. Something is bothering them. I can feel it. Ninetales feels it too."

_A few hours ago… _Tails pondered. _Around the time that I arrived._

Which brought up a question of his own. "How did Ninetales find me?"

Rosa's eyebrows furrowed. "I saw that horrid balloon a while ago. It belongs to a group of thieves that go around trying to steal or capture other peoples' Pokémon. I didn't worry about it too much, since it seemed they were just passing over, but when Ninetales took off towards them I had a feeling they were up to no good." She grinned. "My eyesight isn't what it used to be, but I could still watch as that balloon flew off into the distance. When Ninetales returned with you, I figured those thieves had been trying to capture you."

Tails nodded his understanding and smiled, looking at the other fox. "Thank you Ninetales," he said, not entirely sure if it could understand him or not.

It seemed to smile back warmly, adding in a happy, "_Niiine_tales."

It was then that Tails noticed Rosa's somewhat perplexed expression directed towards him, as though trying to figure something out. "I'm curious," she said suddenly. "What's in your bag, Tails?"

_Bag…?_

Tails looked down and was surprised to find the brown hiking bag still slung around his shoulder. He had completely forgotten about it. Instinctively, his hand moved protectively to the bag of Chaos Emeralds.

And he froze.

Swallowing hard, he answered the question: "Nothing."

Rosa raised an eyebrow. "Then why do you have it?"

He opened the bag and peered inside, then stuck a hand in and felt around desperately. "No—there _was _something here…Something very important. But—"

Frantically, he turned the bag completely upside down as shook it, as though it would make the Chaos Emeralds reappear. Instead, however, two shining round objects fell out onto his lap and he stared at them.

"Shadow," he whispered quietly, remembering the events just before the transportation to this world. The Rings that Shadow had brought with him for Tails to examine, the ebony hedgehog' power welling up inside of him till he was unable to contain it…

_Chaos Control._

And then Tails was here, in this foreign world.

Suddenly, he looked up at the kind old woman, who was watching him with a curious eyebrow furrowed. "I have to go," he explained, jumping down from the sofa on which he sat. "See, some of my friends are here somewhere, and I have to find them because one of them might need—"

"Sit down," Rosa interrupted, stopping him as she reached for the book she had brought out.

Tails, confused and wondering what she was doing, obliged and retook his position across from her.

"This is a very special Ninetales," she said as she flipped through the pages of the book, obviously looking for something specific. "Notice its golden hue? Most are a lighter, creamy colour. It's also considerable larger than most others."

The Ninetales seemed to sit up a bit with pride as she continued.

"I found this animal when I was younger; much younger. A young woman, just finding my place in the world. I did not want to become a Pokémon trainer, you know. No animal should be confined to that small of a space and forced to do the will of its master. They should have a choice."

Tails nodded uncertainly, as he did not know exactly what she was talking about but understood the basic point she was making.

Rosa paused, scanned a page of the book, and continued speaking and flipping. "Well, I found this Ninetales—rather; it found me—while I was on my way to the Kanto region. I was attacked by a flock of Spearow. Ferocious birds, I tell you. Well, this Ninetales showed up just in time; fought off all those Spearow with a single blast of its fire."

Tails raised an eyebrow at the fox across from him. _Fire…?_

But Rosa didn't notice. "It brought me this book all those years ago. I knew—I don't know how, but I did—that it was more than just stories. And now…Now, I believe the time has come." She glanced up at the anthropomorphic fox. "Come here, child," she said distractedly, returning to the book.

Tails obliged and moved to stand beside Rosa's rocking chair, on the opposite side from Ninetales. He caught the last line on one of the pages she flipped by: _"thus the world shall turn to ash." _Most of the pages and fancy letterings were faded or stained to the point that it was impossible to tell what they said at a quick glance, if at all.

"Here we are." Finally, Rosa stopped at a page with badly fading text in the center of the page. Tails could tell from the creases in the spine of the book that it had been opened to this page many times before.

"Somehow…" Rosa began softly, "Somehow I think this is meant for you." She held the book in a better position for the kit to read, but the letters were too faded to make out the entire script.

_A ti wh n all is we nd pe il fl e ,_

_S x will c e, wi h s v n n eded._

_Lo t po er mu t be ca tu e again._

_The s ve th m st be fo n ._

_A he o o w rl s turns ag t,_

_nd anot er must t e th ir pl e to ad._

_T ra ny r ses, p in and be ra al re gn._

_B tt es for the p er ra e._

_But h ro s fa l,_

_And d ne s is a l that c n save_

_W en the haos ove he ms an al y._

_Ch os br ngs dar ess,_

_Da k ess ret ns c aos._

_Cha s c u es d st uc ion,_

_B t chaos al ne can re to e the peace._

"I…I can't read it," Tails said quietly. "I can make out some stuff, but it's too faded."

Rosa nodded understandingly. "I'm afraid that was my reaction too." She folded the book closed again and held in on her lap for a moment with both hands, then picked it up and slipped it inside of Tails' bag. "But I think you may be the one who can figure out what it means. Take it with you, Tails."

"Um…Thanks."

A minute and six packed-up chocolate chip cookies later, Tails found himself standing in front of the small house with Rosa and the golden fox. He was just about to wave his goodbye and take to the skies when he noticed Rosa bent over slightly to stroke the fur of the bigger fox affectionately, as though saying goodbye. Then she turned to him.

"Ninetales will be going with you," she announced as the giant animal walked over to him.

Tails looked up at Ninetales, then back to Rosa. "Why?" he asked.

She smiled gently. "It has been hearing the whispers of the Pokémon in this forest, so it knows what strange things are happening here. If your friends that you have to find are anything like you, Ninetales will know where to go. Plus," she added with a wink, "it's always good to have a bodyguard."

"Ninetales," Ninetales agreed in its soft, musical voice, then bent low to the ground and looked at Tails expectantly.

Taking a hint, the anthropomorphic fox climbed onto the back of his new companion and, with a final goodbye and thank you to Rosa Thorn, the two were off.

"Take care of yourself, Tails!" Rosa called after him with a wave. "And good luck!"

**Yay! I get to answer some anonymous reviews now! :D **

**Midnight rebel spy: Yayz! I updates again :p**

**No name to give: Yayz! I'm glad you have confidence in this as a story, and I will do my very best to live up to expectations :)**

**zetroC Girl: O.O really? I got you back into Sonic fics? Cool! :D ooh, now I feel all warm and fuzzy inside, like I accomplished something significant in my life (completely seriously)! Anyways, I'm glad you like my story, and like I said, I hope you continue to enjoy it as the main plot comes into focus. **

**ShadowRainX: well, that's the plan :D I'm glad it seems to be going good. I just hope that most of the current fans of this story like where I'm taking it… *bites lip nervously***

**darkestmoon12: lol well thank you, and no worries; people are definitely reviewing. In 9 chapters I got 153 reviews…O.O that's a lot! Whoa…**

**SonictheHedgehog Lovergirl: haha oh, yes, Shadow was brutally…tortured I'm guessing? (I don't really know what 'pwned' means, but I think that's close.) But I find that I like my favourite characters a lot more when I can make bad things happen to them ^.^ **

**Sonic: Funny actually, I find that I flip over Shadow sometimes too. I'll get into this huge argument with my cuz Katelyn (a complete Sonic fanatic) about how Shadow does **_**NOT**_** suck, and it'll last for days :D**

**Madgirl1997: Wow, best story? I dunno about that….I haven't even gotten into the main plot yet! But thank you :D and I really hope people like where I'm taking it…**

**White Rose: Well, your waiting is over…for now, anyways ;) I can't make any promises that it will be a quick update, since I don't know how busy I'll be once school starts…but I **_**think**_** it will be faster than this one was. Oh haha and sorry about the cliffie between those two, but at least chapter 8 wasn't real long :D**

**Silverfur of Skyclan: Here I am, continuing :D glad ya like it.**

**Thanks so much for all the reviews guys/girls! Remember; any review is welcome, as long as you're polite if you have something negative to say. And I'll **_**try**_** to be faster this time…**


	11. That's ONE Way to Introduce Yourself

**SURPRISE! ….. *ahem. Well. I know….It's been forever…but in my defence, my life was full of stuff and then when it wasn't, I couldn't get back into the story. This chapter was going to be when a drastic even happens…but I couldn't decide which way I wanted to take it for the longest time, and then I couldn't word it right, and then it wasn't funny enough, and then I didn't have time again -.- But I'm here now. Thanks to all of you who didn't give up hope on me…I said I would finish it, and I will. It just might not be very fast :( I can't promise when I'll update again, but I CAN promise that I won't make you wait a year and a half again…not even a year. That was cruel and unusual and I'm sorry. Anyways, you've waited long enough. I'll let you read now :)**

**Disclaimer: Though it's been a while, I still don't own either one.**

Chapter 11

That's ONE Way to Introduce Yourself

**Celestic Town**

It took only a moment for the blue blur to make himself at home in the now wind-blown waiting room. In a flash he had already straightened the chairs, picked up all of Nurse Joy's papers, drew a (rather terrible) self portrait on the window with his finger, and settled himself by zipping to each stunned human to shake their hand vigorously and introduce himself as Sonic the "Amazing" Hedgehog.

Another moment found Nurse Joy snapping out of her own stupor to hurriedly care for the two new-comer _Pokémon_; one of whom she noted immediately as having been attacked by more than one Beedrill and apparently stumbled upon a Gloom, and the other who seemed to be suffering from far too much motion far too fast.

The Hoothoot and Mime Jr. flew to the counter and landed, sighing in unison. Rouge tackled a stiff, bloodshot eyed Knuckles and Shadow straightened himself and took a deep quiet breath to clear the cobwebs creeping back into his mind.

"Sonic." He tried to keep the relief out of his voice as he regained the attention of the hyper hedgehog.

Sonic turned to him with a slight smile, all signs of ridiculousness leaving his features and persona. "So you made it too."

Rouge and Knuckles' reunion became sombre as the two also turned towards Shadow, each Mobian feeling the hidden message behind those words.

_You lived._

A moment of tense and relieved silence passed before Shadow spoke low and soft, "So it seems."

The silence then changed from tense to awkward and a slight forced cough could be heard from near the front desk. All eyes turned to an uncomfortable Professor Oak who stood with a hand rubbing the back of his head and an unnatural large smile.

"So, if you don't mind my asking, Sonic—er, the Amazing—what kind of Pokémon are you...exactly...?"

Rouge huffed and rolled her eyes. "For the _last _time, old man, we are _not_ Pokémon!" Then, sniffing the air and noticing for the first time, turned to Sonic. "Phewy, you _stink_!" the bat observed, waving a hand in front of her nose.

Nurse Joy switched quickly from surprised to primary-care-giver and gasped at Sonic's appearance. "Oh dear!" she exclaimed, rushing over with Chansey at her side and dragging the blue hedgehog in the building. "You poor thing! What happened to you?"

"What, these?" Sonic asked, gesturing to the swelled pink dots all over his body. "Just stumbled into a hornet's nest, that's all."

"And the _smell_?" Rouge questioned.

Sonic's expression turned somewhat amused but a bit at a loss for words. "Uh…a drooling mushroom."

The bat stared at him for a moment, then decided not to ask. "Well, you need a bath."

Sonic looked around the interior of the small building critically, noting the five humans he had rushed through meeting and a fat yellow thing with red cheeks. He cocked his head to one side, a teasing smile playing at his lips.

"So I see you made some new friends, huh, Shads?" he asked. Hoothoot dropped onto his head. "I have, too."

"Hoothoot!"

"His name is Hoothoot," he added, as though they should all be proud of him for figuring it out.

Behind him, Knuckles and Rouge were fighting again over one aggravating insult or another from the white Mobian. The little pink clown thing was getting rather discombobulated, trying to copy every movement between the two.

"Incredible…" Professor Oak mused to himself, rubbing his chin. "They possess intelligence and personalities equal to any human. Where have they been hiding, and how many more…?"

The electric mouse Pokémon broke away from the concentrated group of humans, who now outnumbered the Mobians by only one. It ran up to Sonic's feet and waved a stubby hand, smiling.

"Pikachu!"

"Bless you," came the quick dismissive reply.

A puzzled look crossed the face of the yellow animal, but Sonic, moving past it and plopping himself comfortably in one of the chairs with feet resting on another and hands placed casually behind his head, remained oblivious to it.

"So Shads, you figure out where we are yet?"

Rouge noogied Knuckles, who then turned red with anger and leapt at the bat, only to be knocked away immediately by a large cream-coloured feline with a jewel in its forehead. The Persian pinned him to the floor, fangs bared angrily. Rouge just laughed.

"Shadow?"

The ebony lifeform turned his attention back to his blue counterpart, aware that the throbbing of his temples was increasing in intensity. "Hm?"

"Where are we?"

Shadow blinked. The noises in the room seemed to grow louder in his ears and he put a hand to his head. "Um, we're…We're in…I…Sorry, what?" The lights were bright—too bright. The blood pounded through his ears. He couldn't concentrate.

The man in the white lab coat cast a worried look to Shadow and answered in his place, "The Sinnoh region. Celestic Town, to be more precise."

"Cool," Sonic commented distractedly. His eyes were still on the black and red hedgehog, who, as it would seem, wasn't feeling too great.

For the first time, Sonic noticed Shadow's condition. His fur was dirty and matted, crimson eyes dark and dull, his posture was weak and tired, and he had yet to reprimand the fifty-years-younger hedgehog for calling him 'Shads' thrice since his arrival.

"Man Shads…You look like crap."

"I'm…fine," Shadow lied, blinking a few times to clear the fuzziness of his vision. His chest felt heavy.

Make that four times since his arrival.

Sonic looked sceptical. "What happened to you?"

"Nothing." The blood pounded through his head, resounding in his ears like a raging river. His wrists burned, his chest ached. "I'm just…a little tired."

Rouge finally called off her new-found friend and helped Knuckles to his feet, where he promptly began to grumble and brush himself off. Nurse Joy stopped fussing over Sonic and went to organizing the papers he had recklessly piled back together.

Sonic shrugged. "Well, if you say so."

"I…" a small voice sounded, turning all eyes to a very perplexed Dawn. "I still don't understand…" she began. "What is going on? Who or what are these creatures?"

"Oh!" Sonic exclaimed. "I'm sorry, that was rude of me. I forgot all about that pinhead over there, Knuckles the Echidna." He grinned, then pointed at the owl creature still on his head. "And this is—"

"Hoothoot. Yeah," everyone said in unison, rolling their eyes.

He looked on them in wonder, trying to figure out how they all knew its name, before knitting his eyebrows and asking, "Well, did you know it only has _one foot_?"

The humans exchanged glances; first confused, and then amused.

"Actually," Professor Oak said, stifling a chuckle, "Hoothoot have _two_ legs."

Sonic stared at him. "Nuh-uh."

"Er…yes, it does."

"No it doesn't."

"Yes, it does."

"No it doesn't."

Professor Oak sighed, trying to be patient, and forced a tight smile. "Hoothoot only stands on one foot. Usually, its other is tucked in its feathers, and it switches feet so quickly that it's rarely observed. It _has _two feet."

Sonic blinked, unmoved, and after a moment replied with, "No it doesn't."

A collective groan sounded from most of the occupants of the room, with the only exceptions being Nurse Joy—who was busy bustling around and re-gathering the papers that Sonic's hasty arrival had strewn all over the place—and Shadow—who was having a hard enough time simply remaining upright, let alone actually listening to the conversation.

"This is all beside the point," Nurse Joy interjected.

"I agree," said the professor, giving up on the idea of explaining reason to Sonic. "The question of who you are and where you came from has yet to be answered."

A bitter scoff resounded from the corner of the room and all eyes turned to Ash, who had until now been seated quietly. "Why do we waste our time with such trivial matters?" he asked, his head hung low so that menacing shadows concealed his eyes. "It's not important what they are or where they came from. What matters is that now they are here, and _we _are the first to find them."

Sonic leaned over to Knuckle and in a whisper asked, "Geez, what's _his_ problem?"

Shadow stood stalk still, fists clenched at his sides, jaw firmly set. The quills on his spine prickled as his stomach rolled over, making him feel nauseous. Something had entered the air around him, around the room, around the very building, that he couldn't quite place, but he recognized it from somewhere.

"Shut up Ash!" Dawn snapped irritated. "No one asked you!"

Ash laughed bitterly, eyes flashing. "Oh Dawn, naïve as always. No one _has _to ask me my opinion. I will state it as I please, and those in my presence must accept it as law. That is what happens when your leader speaks."

"Someone has _issuuuues,_" Sonic sang.

The boy with the red cap abruptly rose from his seat with such force that his chair fell over backwards. His hand disappeared into his back pocket for only a second and emerged with a small red and white ball between his index and middle finger. "You _will _learn your place, infernal creature!"

"Ash don't—!" Brock cried, reaching for his bipolar friend too late. The Pokéball flew from Ash's hand and broke open of the floor, revealing the giant orange dragon with a flaming tail through a flash of red light.

This scene seemed all too familiar. The command was shouted, the finger was pointed, and with an earth-shattering roar, a deadly burst of fire blasted from the mouth of the beast.

The event processed in Shadow's hazy mind not a moment too soon. Sonic, Rouge, Knuckles…all of them were in the line of fire, and only he knew how dangerous that line really was. He hadn't the time to consider the consequences on his incomplete form, but sprang from his position towards his blue counterpart, calling upon what little power he had left to give him a chance. The world seemed to slow down around him as he reached Sonic, but he still didn't have enough time. Rouge and Knuckles were much slower than both hedgehogs—they would never move in time.

Shadow grit his teeth with frustration and agony as he dug deeper inside himself, searching his entire being, reaching into his very existence to supply himself with the power necessary to complete his task. This was _his _fault. He couldn't let them die because of _his _actions. This whole predicament was his responsibility, and his pride would not allow him to walk away from it.

Throwing Sonic across the room and out of danger, Shadow pushed off the ground with the echidna as his goal. Even with his desperate Chaos Control to manipulate time, the heat from the blaze was getting hotter. There would be no Dawn to help him this time. He reached Knuckles and used the same technique as he had with Sonic to get him to safety. Last was Rouge, whose slowed expression revealed every bit of awe and fear at the approaching inferno. It was almost on his tail now—he needed more time! He had one shot of one second, or both of them would be dead.

His head felt like it would explode. A fire roared viciously in his stomach. His lungs felt like lead. But with burning eyes squinted to focus through the black fog, he found the final strength he had and needed to grab his fellow Mobian and leap through the air, crashing through Sonic's window representation of himself. Time returned to its original speed and he was falling, shattered glass raining around him. He landed hard on his left shoulder and rolled, sending a repeating pain through his back and arm, but he barely noticed it among all the rest.

It was done. With all the willpower in the world, there remained nothing that Shadow could do. Sonic, Knuckles, and Rouge were safe.

The crowd inside shielded their faces from the heat, two of whom were just realizing how they had escaped. Rouge lay on her stomach next to Shadow outside of the window, her hands covering her head as the fire erupted out of the building only a few feet above her.

When the blast had subsided, the group stirred. Ash became once again aware of his despicable activities, others set to scolding the young trainer. Sonic and Knuckles picked themselves up from the floor and exchanged amazed glances, then assured the humans that they were fine before looking around for their ebony companion.

Shadow remained as he had landed, on his side and curled into himself. He hadn't the ability to move, or the strength remaining to reveal the agony he felt throughout his entire being. His breath came in shortening gasps, his body trembled with utter exhaustion. There was nothing left inside of him. Even as Rouge raised herself from the ground and rushed to him, followed suit by Sonic and Knuckles and then the humans, Shadow was nearly oblivious. He had pushed himself far past his limit with the knowledge that it would tap into his life force, but he had had to do it.

After all, this is what he had promised that he would do.

The pain was numbing as he drifted farther than ever before, the faces around him blending together and the jumbled voices of concern becoming one familiar sound. Blue eyes, blond hair, a perfect white smile. Maria shone with the light of an angel before his glazed eyes, dancing in circles and grinning at him.

"_Come play with me, Shadow."_

And for once, the world he slipped into was the farthest thing from black.

**GASP! A CLIFFIE! I must say, this is the worst one I've done. But don't worry, I think this will be the last time that I completely torture Shadow. I just hate when stories have a character in really bad condition then all of a sudden they're fine. I know…it's kinda depressing and not super funny at the end, but I hope it still pleases and makes sense. **

**I'm not gonna do the anonymous review reply thing this time cuz it would take forever….**

**By the way, 247 reviews? You guys are awesome! Sorry, I don't know who #200 was and it's 12 in the morning. I'm not counting to find out right now. :p Sorry again…**


	12. To Dream a Better Dream

**Hey! Here it is, the first chapter update since my life in University has begun! 11 pages, wow. Hopefully you guys like it, I know I made you wait a while and I'm sorry…but I kept it under a year. Yay! So here you go. Sorry this one isn't too incredibly funny, but it's kinda a serious matter so…Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Don't own it. If I did, that would be awesome. But I don't. So It's not.**

Chapter 12  
To Dream a Better Dream

**Celestic Town**

The atmosphere of the entire building had changed. There was no longer any joking or teasing, no pointless bickering between bat and echidna, no scolding from any humans, and not a single word to or from Ash Ketchem.

The boy sat alone in the reception room, with nothing but his thoughts to accompany him. But they would not console him. The soft summer breeze trickled in through the shattered window he had helped cause. The room stank of Gloom and smoke and antiseptic, each scent only reminding him of how terrible his actions were.

Ash twirled Charizard's Pokéball between his fingers absentmindedly, staring at the red and white as though it would give him some clue as to what had happened.

One moment, he was sitting there, intrigued by the day's events and the newly discovered Mobian Pokémon. The next, he found himself loathing everything and everyone in the room. It wasn't him. It couldn't have been him. But those were his words; that was his Charizard. If it wasn't him, then…who?

The automatic doors opened and Ash lifted his eyes to find Professor Oak looking on him with a mixture of concern and disapproval lining his aged features.

Ash stood. "How is it?" he asked quietly.

"Alive, but barely. We can't seem to revive it. But after all it has been through today, it's no wonder."

By 'all that it's been through', Ash interpreted 'all that you've done to it'. He lowered his eyes to the floor.

"I'm sorry…"

The professor approached the boy. "Do you want to tell me what happened?"

Ash shoved his hands in his pocket. "I don't know."

"You don't know what happened or you don't know if you want to tell me?"

"Both."

Samuel Oak waited expectantly.

With a sigh, Ash went on, "I can't explain it, Professor. I feel…agitated. Frustrated. Like the world is out to get me."

The aged expert crossed his arms and cocked an eyebrow. "Well it sounds to me like you're stressed. You take so much on your shoulders all the time, it must finally be getting to you. But until you can work out these feelings you're having, I think it's best if you steer clear of our visitors."

Ash nodded. "I guess you're right…"

Professor Oak gave the boy one last uncertain look before heading back to the infirmary.

"Professor?" Ash intoned, causing the man to stop and glance back at him. "Is…is it—he—going to be alright?"

Professor Oak shook his head. "It's not looking good."

...

_"Come play with me, Shadow,"_ the girl coxed, holding out her delicate hand and smiling at him.

Shadow stared unbelievingly, not daring to even blink for fear that she would disappear from his life again. "Maria?" he asked cautiously.

_"Of course it's me, you silly hedgehog,"_ she giggled. _"Why do you look so surprised?"_

His heart swelled inside of his chest and his throat formed a lump. With the pressure of unshed tears stinging his eyes, he reached out and took the hand.

Maria smiled knowingly. _"Oh, Shadow, don't look so sad."_

"But…but the A.R.K., the soldiers—"

_"None of that matters here."_ Her voice was as soft as a breeze, just as he remembered it. She held his hand and pulled him into a place that seemed so familiar, but somehow foreign to him: A meadow, filled with flowers of every bright colour he had ever known. The grass was soft under his feet, the air clean and fresh, the sky a beautiful blue—but something seemed strange about this place. The sky, the flowers, the trees, Maria—they all seemed to shine around him.

"Maria, what is this place?"

_"This,"_ she replied wonderingly, looking around the world, _"is my home."_

Shadow couldn't stop the liquid crystals of salt water from trickling from his eyes. "It's beautiful," he whispered.

She laughed, _"I knew you'd like it! It's just like we always dreamed it would be. A place that's perfect, just for the two of us."_

And it was perfect. Any place would have been perfect if it meant seeing his only friend, his only reason, one more time.

_"Shadow, you're smiling!"_ Maria exclaimed happily, taking his other hand as well.

"I am?" He hadn't even recognized its touch on his lips; so long it had been since he smiled.

_"Come here,"_ she said softly, tugging at his hands. _"There's something I want to show you."_

The two ran through the meadow together, side by side, laughing and playing just like they did fifty years ago, just like he always wished he could do again.

...

"…And that's how I saved the world the fifth time. And then, there was this monster, and Eggman ate a kid, but he spit him back out because he was a vegetarian, but the frog ate the monster and then the monster ate the kid again—"

"What are you talking about, Sonic?" Knuckles interrupted. "Eggman never ate a kid."

"But he wanted to!"

"That's not the same thing."

"Well, he would have if he wasn't a vegetarian."

No one was really listening anymore to Sonic's ranting. There seemed to be no point, since none of them thought it would ever end and besides, the hedgehog was doing a very good job of entertaining himself with his somewhat exaggerated retellings.

Brock and Dawn exchanged intense conversation with Rouge, gathering every detail of life in Mobius. Knuckled occasionally added his say, but for the most part, his time was spent either swatting at the Mime Jr. or glaring back at the Persian at Rouge's side. All had finally become acquainted and could address each other by first name without adding 'a' to the Mobians', and for a few minutes they could seem to forget about the hedgehog in the next room, clinging to life by merely a few tubes and wires.

But only for a few minutes.

"And just as I finished off that G.U.N robot sent to catch me for something I didn't even do, Shadow—"

Sonic stopped abruptly, and a heaviness burdened the hearts of the Mobians.

"That…" Sonic began again, slowly, quietly. "That was when I met him. He started off trying to destroy Earth but…" He swallowed hard. "In the end, he helped me save it. That...was the seventh time."

A moment of reverence passed, all eyes cast downward in a silent prayer that somehow, Shadow would be okay.

The door opened.

Immediately, all were on their feet practically shouting questions, until quiet and calm Nurse Joy screeched at the top of her lungs,

"QUIIIIIIIETTTTT!"

This was only partially effective, as now everyone felt the need to complain about their busted eardrums. She had, however, made her point; a few moments later, all had settled down enough for Rouge to ask the questions everyone wanted answered.

"Has there been any change?"

The nurse shook her head solemnly. "If anything, he's worsening."

"Can we see him?" Sonic asked

"I suppose," Joy began hesitantly, "one at a time. If he wakes, I don't want him to be overwhelmed."

...

Knuckles closed the door of the intensive care room quietly behind him and waited for a moment, hand resting on the doorknob. It was completely silent, except for the slow and steady beeping of the hedgehog's heart monitor. It took a few seconds for him to work up the courage to turn around, and much longer to gather his thoughts.

There he was, as silent and motionless as death itself. His face showed no sign of life, chest barely rising with every breath.

The echidna took a seat in a little fold-up chair next to Shadow's bed and for the longest time merely stared at the floor.

"Well what am I supposed to say?" he finally asked quietly, to either himself or the hedgehog.

_Beep. Beep. Beep._

Knuckles sighed, the sound echoing around the clinic room. "You are…absolutely the most stupid creature ever to walk the earth, you know that?"

Silence.

"Eggman. Eggman!" Knuckled exclaimed. "After all the crap you put up with from him—after the crap we have all put up with from him—you actually let him trick you?" His voice slowly rose from barely above a whisper to nearing a shout. "I mean, yeah, that's usually what happens to me…But you're supposed to be some kind of god, some kind of impenetrable brick wall. You're an obnoxious, egocentric, vain, rude, self-centered, and supposedly perfect jerkwad, but you still managed to pull off the stupidest, most undeniably idiotic act of the century!"

Knuckles was standing now, waving his arms around in exaggeration, pacing wildly and turning red.

"I mean, do you even think before you do something? Why do you always have to be such an idiot? Blow up the moon, sure. Try to destroy the earth, why not? Use your powers to try to kill our intergalactic friend, wonderful. Man, you've had some major screw-ups, but letting Eggman send us all to Pokey-ville has got to be the worst!"

The door creaked open in his rantings and a blur of white flew into the room.

"I just can't understand you, Shadow," Knuckles continued, stopping to look at the incapacitated hedgehog. "Just when I think I have you all figured out, you do something like this. And don't think I've forgotten about what you did to me yesterday…It's not like I was asking for something that you hadn't given up before! Was it really so bad that I didn't say please? Why would you give it to Sonic, but not to me? One thing, just one little thing that I wanted from you, but no. Because I wasn't good enough for you!"

"My, Knuckles, I had no idea!"

The repulsively familiar feminine voice drew Knuckles' attention to the ceiling, and thus to an upside down bat.

Rouge giggled deviously.

"And all this time, I thought you had a crush on me!"

Blood rushed to the echidna's cheeks and his eyes widened, looking back and forth between Shadow and Rouge in utter embarrassment.

"No…N-no, it's—uh, well—it's not like—we never…I'm not—!" he stuttered, face nearly glowing red in the dim lighting.

"Suuuure," Rouge teased, flying down from the ceiling and landing beside the echidna. With one hand on her hip a finger on her lips, she winked at him. "It's okay, Knucky. I won't tell anyone."

"But—But I don't—!" Embarrassed and enraged, Knuckles turned on his heel and marched out the door, sticking his head in once more to declare, "I AM NOT INTERESTED IN SHADOW!"

Rouge laughed heartily, whipping an imaginary tear from her eye. Such joy could always be found in harassing the hot-headed Guardian.

"Oh, Shadow," she said, "if you could have seen the look on his face!"

Her laughter continues, echoing off the ceiling and walls, its sound multiplying and rising, until Rouge realized that Shadow wasn't going to join her. Until Rouge realized that he may never join her again. She assumed the chair left behind by the echidna and rested her hands on her lap, eyes fixated on the beeping heart monitor attached to her companion.

"You didn't have to do that, you know," she said quietly. "Knuckles and Sonic, they would have been fine. They always are. And me, well…if it meant you would be okay…I would have gladly taken a hit. Even if it meant tainting my beauty." She smiled weakly. "So you pull through for me, okay? You owe me that much."

She rose from her seat, taking a deep breath to keep at bay the liquid crystals she'd been fighting back since their reunion. Looking into his sleeping face, her hand unconsciously found his.

"Shadow…"

Without thinking, Rouge leaned in slowly, polished lips barely pausing before his. A single tear fell from her eye and came to rest on the hedgehog's cheek. The bat blushed slightly and brought a gloved hand to his face, brushing the droplet away with a whisper.

"Get better, handsome."

With a final hesitation, she pulled away, wiping her eyes dry and faking a smile before pushing through the door and into the hallway.

...

For the longest time, it was all Sonic could do just to stand there, glaring at his ebony counterpart as he lay deathly still on the clinic bed.

He was angry.

With what—or who—he wasn't sure. There was just too much to be angry about to pinpoint just one factor.

"You're kind of stupid, you know that?" he finally said. The steady beep of the monitor was all that answered.

"You couldn't leave well enough alone, could you? Had to do something. Stick your big egosineric…egosist…Eggo…your big nose into it. It's bad enough you brought us all to this world…now you're not even sticking around long enough to accept the responsibility for it."

_Beep…Beep…Beep…Beep…_

"I'm the fastest thing alive, Shadow. Don't you think I could have gotten us all out of the way? But you _had_ to use Chaos Control, you _had_ to be the hero. You just _had_ to nearly kill yourself…again."

Without warning, something inside of him snapped open and Sonic whipped around, snatching the chair and throwing it across the room at superspeed. It crashed against the far wall and shattered.

"Dangit, Shadow, when are you gonna see that you're worth more than that?" Sonic shouted at the unconscious form. "You're the Ultimate Lifeform, for Pete's sake! You're supposed to make a difference! You're supposed to be great! And I don't think…" he paused, lowering his eyes. "…I don't think I can get us back home alone this time."

Silence resumed. Sonic stood quietly, eyes cast downward, gloved fists clenched at his sides.

"Just come back, Faker."

...

_"Come on, Shadow!"_ Maria called. _"We're almost there!"_

They must have been running all day, Shadow realized. They were in a forest now, filled with beautiful evergreens and massive oaks, berries growing everywhere and birds singing their individual melodies. It was like walking in a dream; a dream that he had longed for so long to have. The sun had dipped below the horizon, and looking up he could catch glimpse of the occasional star as they slowly revealed themselves one by one through the fading light and cover of tree tops.

He watched the girl, now running in front of him to lead the way, barely believing that it could be true, that he could finally be with her again. But there she was, in every detail right down to the light blue dress that was her favourite. Not lying on the floor, not surrounded by a pool of her own blood—running, dancing, laughing. The Maria he knew.

It was dark when the girl suddenly halted in front of Shadow, putting her arms out to signal that they were here.

_"Close your eyes,"_ she told him, a huge grin brightening her features.

He obeyed, and soon felt her small hands in his as Maria guided him forward slowly. When they had gone a little ways, she told him to sit down, then to lay on his back. She released his hands and, a moment later, said, _"Okay, you can open your eyes now."_

He did.

_"Isn't it beautiful?"_

Maria was beside him, staring up at the sky.

"It's just the moon," Shadow replied quietly.

_"I know, it's just…"_ She looked at him and smiled. _"It's so much smaller than it was on the ARK. But it's so small…and still makes everything so bright. It's beautiful."_

The hedgehog considered her words carefully. "Yeah," he finally said. "I guess it is."

The two remained silent for a long time after, simply enjoying the other's presence. It was so calm, serene, peaceful…Shadow couldn't remember the last time he had felt so whole. There, with Maria…that was how it shold be. That was how it always should have been.

"I missed you, Maria," he whispered, for it was all the voice he could find.

_"I missed you too."_

"I'm sorry…" He couldn't stop himself. "I'm sorry I didn't stop them. I'm sorry I didn't protect you. I should have—"

_"No, Shadow,"_ Maria replied, wrapping her hand in his. _"I didn't want you too. I wanted you to live. I needed you to live."_

"I needed _you_, Maria," he countered. "I couldn't do it on my own…I lost myself…"

_"I know."_

"Maria, promise," Shadow pleaded, turning to her and looking deep into her blue eyes. "Promise me you won't leave me again."

Maria was silent.

...

Night had fallen on Celestic Town, marking the end of the Mobians' first day. Back in the lobby, the crew worked tirelessly to replace the broken glass and then set up a small table, resorting to playing cards to pass the time. Resentfully, Rouge finally allowed Ash to join them without threatening to strangle him. As it turned out, Nurse Joy was quite good at poker, and if they had been playing for more than fun, all players would have been out a few dollars.

Conversation had shifted from Ash's participation in the latest tournament to what kind of socks were everyone's favourite, which led to discussion of how Sonic's feet were so big and why Brock never opened his eyes. Both questions were never fully explained, but still they all managed to steer clear of the topic that was Shadow the Hedgehog's condition. They all knew it probably was not going to get better without the proper equipment.

A storm had started. First the wind began to slowly pick up, and soon the dark clouds had rolled in and hidden the full moon from view. Rain and hail battered the small building, but it had seen its share of storms and Nurse Joy assured them that there was nothing to worry about.

A flash of lightning and a crash of thunder later, the lights of the compound flickered and went out.

"Don't worry," Joy asserted amidst the rising panic. "We have generators."

Sure enough, a few moments passed and the lights came back on.

"See?" Professor Oak said. "Everything is all—"

_WHOOOSHHHH_

The door of the center suddenly flew open in a blast of wind, sending the recently reorganized papers and documents flying around the room once again and pelting the patrons with water and ice.

And in the center of it all, standing tall and powerful in the doorway, was a golden-furred canine creature with intelligent, determined eyes and more tails than necessary, each tipped in red. It strode into the room gracefully, majestically.

"A golden Ninetales," Professor Oak whispered in awe, rising from his chair.

"What a beauty!" Rouge exclaimed.

"Niiiinetales," the creature replied, its voice a soft melody in the roaring night. When it lowered itself carefully to the floor, the company took a collective gasp.

There, huddled in a tight ball in the crook of the Ninetales' neck, was a patch of orange fur that didn't belong. It was sopping wet and shivering, clutching tightly to the fur of the animal with one hand and holding a brown hiking bag close to its body with the other.

"Tails!"

Sonic was over in a flash, pulling the kit from the fox-like creature's back and holding him close.

"Tails! Hey, little buddy, you okay?"

Tails' bright blue eyes flicked open. Through chattering teeth, his child-like voice sounded pathetic and tired.

"S-S-S-Sonic?" he asked, relief flooding his features.

"It's me, Tails."

The kit smiled and sneezed all over Sonic's face.

"Ew."

"Sorry…"

"Oh you poor dear!" Nurse Joy exclaimed worriedly. "You're chilled to the bone! Come, let me get you dried off and something hot to drink.

Several minutes later, the group was once again all seated in the lobby, with Tails wrapped in a towel and sipping some tea. Ninetales curled up next to the reception desk and proceeded to lick itself dry. Tails' shivering had ceased and, with his fur all wet, there wasn't much difference between the adorable fox kit and a drowned rat. This was something Sonic made sure to point out shortly after his arrival.

Ash was feeling back to his normal self, actually offering to help make the tea and making sure Tails was warm enough. He even made it a point to refrain from calling the young one an 'it'.

"And then there were five," Professor Oak said in wonder once everyone was resettled and introduced.

"Five?" Tails asked curiously, looking around the room and counting his friends. Sonic, Knuckles, Rouge, and himself… "There are only four of us here."

The silence that followed was enough to alert the fox that something was not right.

"What's going on?" he asked quietly, afraid to hear it. "What's happened?"

"Tails…" Sonic began carefully. "It's…it's about Shadow."

Tails stared at him, eyes wide in fear. "What…" He swallowed hard, trying to be brave. "What's wrong with Shadow?"

"It was my fault," Ash admitted. "I was stupid. Shadow was just trying to help them…"

"He used Chaos Control again," Knuckles explained. "He did it to save us, even though he knew that he didn't have enough energy to use it. He did it anyway."

"With what happened this morning, and without his inhibitor rings…" Rouge continued.

The rest was left to Tails.

"Is he…?"

"He's alive," Professor Oak interjected. "But barely."

"Tails…" Sonic laid a gentle hand on his dearest friend's shoulder. "It doesn't look like Shadow's going to make it."

All he could do was sit in shock, staring into nothingness. Shadow. Dying. How could that be possible? Shadow was the Ultimate Lifeform, ageless and powerful. But he had a weakness, and that was relying on other powers to keep his own contained. Without that regulation, the overuse of power could kill him. It had nearly happened once before.

Tails held his bag close to his body, knuckles aching with tension, before realization hit him.

"Wait!" he exclaimed suddenly, flipping the cover of the bag open and unzipping the pocket. Desperately, he felt around inside with one hand until he found what he was looking for. First one, then two…Smooth golden circles that could only belong one place. He pulled out his hand and the two identical items and leapt to his feet.

"Are those..?" Knuckles began.

Sonic finished for everyone. "Shadow's inhibitor rings." He dared to smile in hope. "Tails, you're something else."

Moments was all it took for the four Mobians, Professor Oak, and Nurse Joy to crowd into the room where Shadow slept. Joy expressed some concern about the shattered chair, of which one blue hedgehog unconvincingly pretended to know nothing about with a hand behind his head and a soft, convicting innocent whistle.

"Will this work?" Rouge asked hopefully and Tails replaced the rings over Shadow's bandaged wrists.

"I'm not sure," the kit replied. "At least it will keep him from expelling more Chaos energy."

"It's the best we can do for now," Knuckles said solemnly. "Better than nothing."

"Sonic?"

The Mobian hero looked from his black companion to his inquiring friend.

"It's Shadow we're talking about…He's a pretty stubborn one, Tails. You've given him a fighting chance."

Tails smiled and looked back to the silent Shadow. If Sonic thought he had a chance, then so did the kit.

**Well! There it is. It's been a while, but things are finally gonna start lining up here really soon. By that, I mean I get to bombard your brains with a bunch of confusing nonsense that actually makes lovely sense...at least to me. XD **

**Once again, I can't promise when I'll next be able to update, but I'll try to do it as soon as possible. I'm afraid priority will be given to schoolwork, since I am now paying big money for it...and priority will also sometimes be given to the novel I'm working on...when I find the inspiration to continue it, that is. In the meantime, if you're desperate to read something, I've got a Shadow one-shot up you can take a look at if ya wanna. Many of you probably have already, but in case anyone wants to, here's it is: **

**www(dot)fanfiction(dot)net/s/5034455/1/Ageless**

**(just replace (dot) with . ...But you know that :p)**

**Thanks again to all of my faithful readers and reviewers, your words are clouds of awesomeness shading my life from the burning spotlight of loneliness. Y'all are coolsters ;)**


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